Women gives birth aboard Manila flight
Print Edition
A woman gave birth to a premature but healthy baby girl mid-flight while traveling from the United Arab Emirates to the Philippines, forcing the plane to carry out an emergency landing in India.
The mother, whose due date was two months away, went into labor on board the Cebu Pacific Air flight on Sunday as it flew from Dubai to Manila, her fellow passenger Missy Berberabe Umandal posted on Facebook.
Panicked flight attendants started calling out for medical assistance — discovering two nurses among the passengers — before turning the front of the cabin into a makeshift delivery room.
“We only heard one semi-loud screech, and a few seconds later, there were tinier, cute screeches, and it was when we knew the baby was born. Luckily, she only had to push once,” Umandal said in her post, with a picture showing the mother holding her newborn, wrapped in a blanket. The mother’s nationality is not known.
Flight attendants and nurses cleaned the newborn with mineral water and dressed her in baby clothes donated by fellow passengers flying with infants.
The pilot conducted an emergency landing in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad so the mother and newborn could receive medical attention before continuing on to Manila.
“After initial examination by the medical staff, they were moved to the mother and child care center of a hospital in the city,” according to a Hyderabad airport security official, requesting anonymity.
“The newborn and mother are fine and under medical supervision.”
The woman, her own mother who was traveling with her, and the baby were given three-day temporary visas, which would most likely be extended until the parent and child were fit to fly, the official said.
Cebu Pacific Air said in a statement that it was the first time a baby was delivered onboard one of its aircraft, calling the birth a “momentous occasion.”
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