A Mother Gave Birth To A Healthy Baby On Board An 11-hour, Transatlantic United Flight
On Sunday, United Flight 997 was halfway across the Atlantic Ocean when the unthinkable occurred.
A passenger went into labor thousands of miles from the plane’s Washington Dulles destination.
According to BBC Pidgin, the expectant woman was due to give birth in late February, but she started having contractions halfway through the 11-hour journey from Accra, Ghana, to Washington, DC.
The unexpected delivery proceeded successfully, and the baby was born healthy, thanks to the medical specialists on board.
According to the outlet, a Ghanaian physician who practices medicine in the United States set up a maternity unit in the plane’s business class section with the help of a former nurse turned flight attendant and assisted the mother in giving birth to her baby.
“Our crew was incredible – they acted swiftly, aided the medical specialists onboard, and made sure everyone was safe throughout the flight,” a United Airlines spokeswoman told Insider.
Woman gives birth on United Airlines Flight from Ghana to US.
A Ghanaian doctor practising in the United States of America, was the hero of the day when he delivered a baby on a flight en route to the US from Ghana. pic.twitter.com/yu6bNmoB7h
— Zhikay Ikejunior (@zhikayikejunior) January 31, 2022
“And we were overjoyed to see the jet land with one extra, quite lovely, customer aboard,” the representative continued.
When the jet arrived on Sunday morning, paramedics met it and took the mother and her child to a nearby hospital.
A United staffer welcomed the new mother with a balloon and a congrats letter that read, “On behalf of the United team at Washington Dulles, congratulations on your baby boy!” according to a spokesperson for the airline.
The airline stated on Monday that both the mother and the child are doing fine.
“Except for being at 30,000 feet, the delivery was uneventful,” a United representative told ABC News.
A Delta flight made headlines last May when a woman gave birth while en route to Hawaii. Another woman went into labor in the air in October, giving birth to a baby two weeks before her due date on a flight from Istanbul to Chicago.
Andrea Michelson of Insider spoke with flight attendants about their thorough training and how they plan to respond to any situations, such as births.