A 41-year-old Indiana mother of two died Wednesday after she suddenly fell ill on an American Airlines flight from the Dominican Republic to North Carolina, reported Fox 59.
The Boeing 737 was diverted to Turks and Caicos, just 310 miles from where the flight departed in Punta Cana, and the woman was rushed to a hospital, the islands’ police force said in a statement.
The unnamed women was pronounced dead there, police said, adding that a “post-mortem will be conducted to ascertain the cause of death.”
Police said the woman was receiving CPR on the flight, which is done to restore the blood circulation and breathing of a person who has suffered cardiac arrest.
Police said they received a request for an emergency landing at 6:12 p.m. on Wednesday and dispatched first responders. The Boeing touched down at an airport in Providenciales, which is the largest island in the archipelago nation of 45,000.
Authorities did not say if the woman’s children or other loved ones were on board with her.
Under a Facebook post by police announcing the death, a user named Stephanie Quinn, of Jamestown, Indiana, commented that the impacted woman was her sister-in-law.
“We are in disbelief and our hearts are breaking,” she wrote.
Melanie McAuley Glab, another Facebook user, replied to Quinn’s comment saying she was also on board the flight and had witnessed her loved one’s final moments before the medical episode.
“I had a chance to see your sister in law and her husband board and share a laugh,” she wrote. “Please know I share my deepest condolences and prayers with all of you during this very difficult unimaginable time.”
Flight records show that the diverted flight left Providenciales the following day and continued on to Charlotte, a hub for American Airlines.
