OFW afflicted with cancer dies on flight home

MANILA, Philippines—An overseas Filipino worker in the final stages of cancer died on his flight from Saudi Arabia Saturday afternoon, authorities at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport said.

The passenger was identified as Reynaldo Ofracio, 56, a resident of Marilao, Bulacan, who was on board Saudi Arabian Airlines flight SV-874 that landed at NAIA Terminal 1 at around 2 p.m.

Ofracio’s wife Dorothy, who accompanied him on the flight, said her husband, who worked as an audiovisual supervisor at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital in Jeddah, was in the final stages of liver cancer.

“Ofracio complained of difficulty of breathing four hours prior to landing in Manila,” Jose Umandap, medical officer-on-duty, said in a report to the public affairs office of the Manila International Airport Authority.

Umandap said Ofracio expired in his seat about three hours before the plane landed and did not respond to emergency aid. The pilot offered to land in a nearby airport but Santos’ wife decided that the flight to Manila should proceed.

The body was transported to a temporary morgue at the airport’s ramp clinic where Dr. Noel Ramirez of the Bureau of Quarantine-NAIA cleared the release of the remains to the widow.