Rosemary and Tommy Burns (Picture: Daily Record/Media Scotland)
The wife of a Scottish football legend has died after falling ill on a flight.
Rosemary Burns, wife of former Celtic FC player Tommy Burns, died in the early hours of Wednesday on a return flight from Tenerife to Glasgow.
Tommy died back in 2008 at the age of 51. Rosemary was aged 69 and leaves behind four children she shared with Tommy.
Rosemary became unwell while on holiday in Tenerife and decided to end her trip early and fly back to Scotland, but her condition worsened on the plane, a source close to the family told the Daily Record.
The pilot declared an on-board incident and had to divert, making an emergency landing in Cork.
The source explained: ‘Rosemary became unwell while on holiday in Tenerife. She decided to end her trip and fly back to Scotland.
Tommy Burns is a Celtic legend (Picture: SNS Group)
Tommy Burns met his wife Rosemary when they were 17 (Picture: Daily Record/Media Scotland)
Rosemary has died aged 69 (Picture: Daily Record/Media Scotland)
‘She got on the plane and became unwell. The flight was supposed to land in Glasgow but it ended up being diverted to Cork.’
Jet2 confirmed flight LS176 was diverted to Cork, Ireland, after a passenger became unwell on board in the early hours of Wednesday.
A passenger on the plane told the Scottish Sun that two passengers with medical training got up to help her as the pilots prepared for landing.
They said: ‘The flight had only been in the air for about 2 hours when the lights went up and the crew asked if anyone with medical training was on board.
‘Staff had already given the lady an oxygen mask to help her breathe.
‘Two passengers then came forward and assisted her for the duration of the flight until it diverted to Cork.
‘Everyone was really concerned about her and it was obviously very serious by the way the crew were acting.
‘The pilot said we’d be landing imminently and within ten minutes we had landed in Ireland, dropping down altitude very quickly.
‘An ambulance arrived about five minutes later and paramedics helped her off the plane.’
Tributes to Rosemary were led by football fans, one of whom said her ‘warmth and kindness touched the lives of many Celtic fans’.
Rosemary and Tommy met at a disco in Glasgow when they were both 17. They married in 1980 and went on to have four children together: Emma, Jenna, Michael and Jonathan.
They were married for 28 years until Tommy died following a battle with skin cancer.
Her husband was beloved across the wider Scottish football spectrum, with Rangers legends Ally McCoist and Walter Smith famously acting as pallbearers at his funeral.
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