On a Wizz Air flight from Ammanm Jordan, to London, a doctor managed to successfully deliver a baby about two hours after departure.
When the aircraft, an Airbus A321neo, took off from the airport of Amman, all passengers aboard were doing fine. However, about two hours into the flight, when flying above the Mediterranean Sea, one of the passengers unexpectedly went into labour. As an immediate landing wasn’t possible, junior doctor Hassan Khan stepped in and helped with the delivery while the plane was in the air and while the mother was lying on the floor of the plane in front of the cockpit door.
“I told the flight attendants what equipment I needed – which would include a neonatal-sized oxygen mask, a clamp for the umbilical cord and a stethoscope – none of which they had on a plane, of course”, Khan explained to Metro UK. In the end, the baby was delivered using just a couple of towels.
Even though the birth was successful, the flight was rerouted to Brindisi, in Italy, in order for the mother and her baby to receive the medical assistance they needed. The doctor received a message from the mother afterwards, saying both she and her baby were doing great.
Although this is the second birth in the air within two weeks, it’s rare that babies are born on planes due to rules about pregnant women flying in their third trimester. According to a 2020 study, published by the International Society of Travel Medicine, 74 children were born on commercial flights between 1929 and 2018, of which all but three survived.
The rules on flying while pregnant are hard to navigate because of huge variety from carrier to carrier, with some requiring a doctor’s certificate to fly after a certain number of weeks’ pregnancy, and others applying different conditions. It’s unsurprising therefore that the overall result is to discourage women near the point of labour from flying.
