Billy Mays Passes After Airline Incident.

Associated Press
11:46 AM PDT, June 28, 2009


TAMPA, Fla. -- Billy Mays, the burly, bearded television pitchman whose boisterous hawking of products such as Orange Glo, OxiClean and ESPN made him a pop-culture icon, died today. He was 50.

Tampa police said Mays was found unresponsive by his wife, Deborah Mays, this morning. A fire rescue crew pronounced him dead at 7:45 a.m. Investigators do not suspect foul play, said Lt. Brian Dugan of the Tampa Police Department.

Mays reportedly was hit on the head Saturday while aboard a US Airways flight that made a rough landing, and Mays' wife told investigators the TV personality didn't feel well before he went to bed Saturday night.

The coroner's office expects to have an autopsy done by Monday afternoon.

US Airways confirmed today that Mays was among the passengers on a flight that landed Saturday afternoon at Tampa International Airport, leaving debris on the runway after apparently blowing its front tires.

Tampa Bay's Fox television affiliate interviewed Mays after the incident.

"All of a sudden, as we hit, you know it was just the hardest hit, all the things from the ceiling started dropping," MyFox Tampa Bay quoted him as saying. "It hit me on the head, but I got a hard head."

Tampa police spokeswoman Laura McElroy said linking Mays' death to the rough landing Saturday afternoon would "purely be speculation." She said Mays' family members didn't report any health issues with the pitchman, but they said he was due to have hip replacement surgery in the coming weeks

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