Imagine you’ve just boarded a flight to Rome, Italy. You’re already looking forward to some time in the Eternal City when a flight attendant who had been “feeling unwell” collapses before your eyes. To your horror, she dies right there, aboard the airplane. This was the tragic and traumatic experience shared by everyone aboard a recent ITA Airways flight.

According to The Mirror, 57-year-old flight attendant Gabriella Cario had been ‘feeling unwell’ on the job and made a fateful choice. You see, her work had taken her to Naples. But instead of seeking local medical help, she asked ITA to send her back to her home near Rome until she was feeling better.

Gabriella is married and the mother of three boys. Doubtless, she was eager to return to her family. Her hometown was the coastal village of Sabaudia, where the mayor said, “I knew Gabriella. She was a bright, always smiling, and kind woman.” ITA Airways flight 1156 to Rome already had a crew, but Cario was just hitching a ride home.

Flight crews have medical training—and medical supplies—for exactly this reason. So when Gabriella collapsed and became unresponsive, her fellow flight attendants leapt into action.

Fox News reported, “Attempts were made to revive her using a defibrillator, but sadly, they were unsuccessful.” The flight had yet to take off, so firefighters and medical crews boarded the plane on the tarmac, but there was nothing left to do.

The plane was delayed, but eventually made it to Rome. Gabriella’s body was returned to her family, who has already held her funeral.

ITA Airways said, “Our colleague, Gabriella Cario, was off duty when she died last Saturday in Reggio Calabria. She was returning home as a passenger and died on the plane before the flight from Reggio Calabria to Rome took off.”

Alberto Mosca, the Mayor of Sabaudia, added, “On behalf of the administration and the entire community, I extend our heartfelt condolences to her husband and her beloved three children.”

Passengers boarded expecting a typical flight to Rome but instead witnessed an unimaginable tragedy. Gabriella Cario’s sudden, surreal death reminds us all how fragile life can be—even for the capable professionals we look to for strength and support. As the plane eventually took off, the weight of what had happened must have lingered.