Gardaí have started an investigation after a postmortem confirmed a 24-year-old Brazilian man died on board an Aer Lingus flight to Dublin when a consignment of drugs burst in his stomach. 
 
 A postmortem by Assistant State Pathologist Dr Margot Bolster confirmed John Kennedy Santos Gurjao had ingested around 0.8kg of suspected cocaine in 80 wrapped pellets. One of the pellets burst and he became ill on the flight from Lisbon to Dublin on Sunday. 
 
 Dr Bolster took samples for toxicology tests which are expected to confirm the substance is cocaine and if so, the total quantity of drugs found in Mr Santos Gurjao’s system would have an estimated street value of around €56,000. 
 
 Liaising 
 
 Gardaí are liaising with Portuguese and Brazilian police to try to establish Mr Santos Gurjao’s movements and when he might have ingested the drugs prior to boarding flight EI 485 at Lisbon airport. It is believed he was going to study English in Dublin. 
 
 Gardaí were also in contact with the Brazilian embassy who, in turn, were in touch with officials in Mr Santos Gurjao’s home city of Boa Vista in northern Brazil, near the border with Venezuela, to inform his family of their son’s death. 
 
 The airbus 320-200 series plane had to be diverted to Cork Airport when Mr Santos Gurjao became ill and agitated. Aer Lingus cabin crew had to restrain him with handcuffs before he started to convulse and he then collapsed into unconsciousness. 
 
 Performed CPR 
 
 A doctor and two nurses who were travelling on the flight attended Mr Santos Gurjao and performed CPR until the plane landed at Cork Airport. HSE paramedics also attended to him at the airport, but he was pronounced dead shortly after arrival. 
 
 Mr Santos Gurjao appeared to be travelling alone but it is understood other passengers pointed out a woman passenger whom he had been with at Lisbon airport. When gardaí spoke to her and searched her luggage, they found 1.8kg of a white powder. 
 
 The 44-year-old woman, who was born in Angola but has a Portuguese passport and lives in Dublin, was arrested under drugs trafficking legislation and taken to Togher Garda Station in Cork for questioning. 
 
 The powder was sent to the Forensic Science Ireland laboratory at Garda headquarters for analysis, where the woman’s claim that it was baking soda was confirmed. 
 
 Gardaí were last night continuing to question her about her relationship with Mr Santos Gurjao and if she knew anything about the drugs he was smuggling into Ireland. 
 
 Meanwhile, last night, following the completion of the postmortem examination, gardaí released the Aer Lingus plane which had been declared a crime scene and had been held for a forensic examination by Garda technical experts. 

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 The family of a drugs mule who died during an Aer Lingus flight thought he was still in Brazil, it has emerged. 
 
 John Kennedy dos Santos Gurjao suffered an overdose after a package thought to contain cocaine burst inside his stomach on a flight from the Portuguese capital Lisbon to Dublin. 
 
 The violent maniac, carrying an estimated €60,000 worth of drugs inside him, went berserk and bit a fellow passenger as the flight crew radioed ahead for assistance. 
 
 The 24-year-old was pronounced dead after the Airbus A320 touched down diverted to Cork Airport on Sunday night. 
 
 Today his aunt Lourdes Gurjao said he had told relatives he was still in the Equator city of Macapa where he had been living for the past year since leaving his native city of Calcoene 230 miles away. 
 
 His family was informed of his death in a phone call from the Brazilian Embassy in Dublin. 
 
 He was one of nine siblings. 
 
 They believed he was still living in Brazil, but they had no idea of the secret double life he had been living. 
 
 (Image: Daragh Mc Sweeney/Provision) 
 
 Read more: Listen to shocking cockpit audio from Aer Lingus flight where man 'bit' passenger and died 
 
 Lourdes said: “We received a phone call from the consulate asking if we knew him. 
 
 “The truth was we didn’t even know he was out of the country. 
 
 “He used to keep in contact by text message. 
 
 "He’d send us messages saying, ‘Morning’ or ‘Afternoon’ but that’s all we knew of him.” 
 
 She told a local paper: “He left Calcoene so he could survive. It was a life or death thing. 
 
 “He lost his parents at a very early age and because there was no work, he went to Macapa. 
 
 “It was a terrible shock. We never imagined he would travel so far away.” 
 
 (Image: RTE) 
 
 Read more: Eye-witness recalls 'very violent end' of passenger who died on Aer Lingus flight 
 
 Several of Kennedy’s friends and relatives changed their Facebook profile pictures to images of black ribbons today. 
 
 Cousin Rafael Gurjao wrote alongside a picture of the youngster: “Rest in peace my cousin. We shall all miss you.” 
 
 Revealing the pain relatives were going through, he added: “Today the Gurjao family is very sad because we lost one of our members.” 
 
 Friend Le Ladislau wrote: “God bless his heart.” 
 
 John, who sometimes spelt his name Jhon, described himself on his Facebook page in February as being in an open relationship but wrote he had got married on November 4 last year. 
 
 (Image: Daragh Mc Sweeney/Provision) 
 
 He also wrote of moving to Porto Ordaz in Venezuela last August. 
 
 He is thought to have spent time too in Barcelona, Spain. 
 
 In April last year he shared a photo on his Facebook page which said: “Today’s aim. To be a better person, not perfect, just better than yesterday.” 
 
 A Portuguese woman in her 40s, thought to have been sat next to him, was arrested after 4lbs of white powder was found in her luggage. 
 
 But tests showed it was not drugs and may have been baking or talcum powder. 
 
 She has since been released without charge. 
 
 A file is being prepared for the DPP.
– Authorities now know how a passenger died during this weekend's eventful Aer Lingus flight from Lisbon to Dublin. A postmortem has determined that Brazilian John Kennedy Santos Gurjao, 24, was carrying almost 2 pounds of suspected cocaine—worth about $63,500–in 80 pellets in his stomach. Then one burst, reports the Irish Times. He was pronounced dead after the plane made an emergency stop. Authorities found another 4 pounds of white powder in the bag of a female passenger spotted with Gurjao, but the substance turned out to be baking soda. It is believed Gurjao was planning to study English in Ireland; relatives tell the Irish Mirror they thought he was still living in Brazil.