Mother died after falling ill on flight back to the US from the Dominican Republic

Stefanie Smith, a 41-year-old mother, died after suddenly feeling unwell while flying from the Dominican Republic to Charlotte, North Carolina, causing an emergency landing in the Turks and Caicos Islands.

Authorities are investigating the death that occurred on February 28 at the Cheshire Hall Medical Center hospital in Turks and Caicos where Smith was transported after making an emergency landing after feeling ill on an American Airlines flight, reported ABCNews. The cause of death has not yet been determined by medical examiners, local police said in a statement in Facebook.

Smith was a resident of Indiana, was on vacation with her boyfriend in the Dominican Republic for five days and appeared healthy just before the flight, according to her friend Maria Yannotti, who was also on the trip.

Smith’s unidentified boyfriend was sitting next to her on the flight and said her eyes rolled back in her head and she began to convulse, according to Yannotti. A doctor and nurses aboard the plane helped administer cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) to the victim before the plane made the emergency landing, according to a source with knowledge of the investigation.

Smith was the mother of two teenagers, an 18-year-old son and a 16-year-old daughter, according to her brother, Chris Volz, who added that he did not know if his sister had any pre-existing health problems.