ITA Airways flight attendant dies after boarding plane in Italy

An off-duty ITA Airlines flight attendant died after boarding a flight scheduled to depart for Rome, Italy, the airline told Fox News Digital.

Gabriella Calio, a 57-year-old mother of three, died on Saturday after boarding ITA Airlines Flight 1156 at Reggio Calabria airport outside Naples, the Manchester Evening News reported.

“Our colleague Gabriella Calio died last Saturday while off-duty in Reggio Calabria (southern Italy). She was a passenger returning home and died on board the flight from Reggio Calabria to Rome before it took off,” the airline said in a statement. “We are providing all possible support to her family.”

Ms Calio was already feeling unwell at the boarding gate but was keen to get home to her husband and children in the Rome area, the Manchester Evening News reported, but her condition worsened once on the plane and she died within minutes.

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Efforts by paramedics to resuscitate Mr Kallio were unsuccessful and all passengers on board were forced to disembark, the Manchester Evening News reported.

Her exact cause of death was not immediately clear.

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The ITA Airlines flight that Calio was reportedly on was traveling from Naples to Rome, Italy. (Reuters/Remo Kasiri)

The plane, which usually departs in the late afternoon, didn't take off from Naples until just after 9pm local time on Saturday night, according to data from the website FlightAware.

“I knew Gabriella. She was a cheerful, smiling, kind woman,” Alberto Mosca, mayor of Ms Cario's home town of Sabaudia, told the Manchester Evening News.

ITA Airlines is based in Rome, Italy. (Reuters/Remo Kasiri)

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“On behalf of our administration and the entire community, we offer our deepest condolences to her husband and three beloved children,” he added.