\n\t\t\t\t\t\tA Delta employee who died while working is suspected of suffering a medical event before his death on Thursday, according to a report from the Ninth Circuit Medical Examiner\u2019s Office. The victim was identified as 49-year-old Daniel Maldonado.Ray Santiago, Maldonado’s best friend, is still trying to come to terms with this loss. “We were planning his 50th birthday,” Santiago said. The two met as kids and graduated together from Colonial High School. “He’s been my best friend since I was 12,” he said. “He was at my wedding, my first childbirth, and drank my first beer with me legally.” Santiago said Daniel, or Danny, had a way of making everyone feel like family, but nothing meant more to him than his three sons. “That was his momentum in life was to work hard and take care of his family,” Santiago said.Santiago said he lost more than a friend, he lost a brother, and it’s the little things he said that will hurt the most. “He is one of the first phone calls that I make, and that phone call is not going to get picked up anymore.”The medical examiner\u2019s office said Maldonado was operating a Delta aircraft tug at work when he reportedly suffered a medical emergency, causing the tug to crash into the underside of a jetway bridge. >> Video below: Delta employee who died on the job at Orlando airport has been identifiedHe then became trapped between the two, resulting in severe abdominal injuries, according to the report.The medical examiner\u2019s office said Maldonado had a history of heart issues, which previously caused him to be out of work for one year. Delta statementMorgan Durrant of Delta Air Lines provided WESH 2 with this statement:”The Delta family is heartbroken at the loss of a team member while on the job at Orlando International Airport on the evening of May 7. We are focused on extending our full support to family and taking care of our Orlando team during this difficult time. We are working with local authorities as a full investigation gets underway to determine what occurred.”Greater Orlando Aviation Authority spokesperson Angela Starke told WESH 2, “The MCO community is deeply saddened about the loss of an airport staff member, and we send our condolences to his friends and family.”\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
A Delta employee who died while working is suspected of suffering a medical event before his death on Thursday, according to a report from the Ninth Circuit Medical Examiner\u2019s Office. <\/p>\n
The victim was identified as 49-year-old Daniel Maldonado.<\/p>\n
Ray Santiago, Maldonado’s best friend, is still trying to come to terms with this loss. <\/p>\n
“We were planning his 50th birthday,” Santiago said. <\/p>\n
The two met as kids and graduated together from Colonial High School. <\/p>\n
“He’s been my best friend since I was 12,” he said. “He was at my wedding, my first childbirth, and drank my first beer with me legally.” <\/p>\n
Santiago said Daniel, or Danny, had a way of making everyone feel like family, but nothing meant more to him than his three sons. <\/p>\n
“That was his momentum in life was to work hard and take care of his family,” Santiago said.<\/p>\n
Santiago said he lost more than a friend, he lost a brother, and it’s the little things he said that will hurt the most. <\/p>\n
“He is one of the first phone calls that I make, and that phone call is not going to get picked up anymore.”<\/p>\n
The medical examiner\u2019s office said Maldonado was operating a Delta aircraft tug at work when he reportedly suffered a medical emergency, causing the tug to crash into the underside of a jetway bridge. <\/p>\n
>> Video below: Delta employee who died on the job at Orlando airport has been identified<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He then became trapped between the two, resulting in severe abdominal injuries, according to the report.<\/p>\n
The medical examiner\u2019s office said Maldonado had a history of heart issues, which previously caused him to be out of work for one year. <\/p>\n
Delta statement<\/p>\n
Morgan Durrant of Delta Air Lines provided WESH 2 with this statement:<\/p>\n
“The Delta family is heartbroken at the loss of a team member while on the job at Orlando International Airport on the evening of May 7. We are focused on extending our full support to family and taking care of our Orlando team during this difficult time. We are working with local authorities as a full investigation gets underway to determine what occurred.”<\/p>\n
Greater Orlando Aviation Authority spokesperson Angela Starke told WESH 2, “The MCO community is deeply saddened about the loss of an airport staff member, and we send our condolences to his friends and family.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Delta employee who died while working is suspected of suffering a medical event before his death on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":268695,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[5507,21527,114902,114903,1089,2457,18742,58543,6205,115372,114904,660,139,141,140,4176,918,1328],"class_list":["post-268694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-death","tag-delta-air-lines","tag-delta-employee","tag-durrant","tag-family","tag-history","tag-loss","tag-maldonado","tag-mco","tag-medical-event","tag-ninth-circuit-medical-examiner","tag-office","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-report","tag-wesh","tag-work"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268694\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}