A woman had an eventful flight from Mexico City to Ciudad Juárez on Friday: she gave birth to a healthy baby boy approximately one hour into the journey.
Aeroméxico reported that a passenger went into labor on flight 113 from the capital to the Chihuahua border city.
A doctor happened to be on board and delivered the baby with the assistance of the cabin crew. The mother and baby were taken to hospital upon arrival in Ciudad Juárez.
Another passenger on the flight, Paola Contreras, appeared to be the first person to break the news of the unexpected mid-flight birth.
“A baby was just born on the flight I was on,” she wrote in a post to Instagram.
“We landed with a new passenger. A round of applause for all the flight attendants. Wow, wow, wow @aeromexico.”
A video posted to social media showed one flight attendant handing over the bundled-up newborn to a passenger, presumably the mother. The doctor who delivered the baby was identified as Leticia Olivares.
There was apparently some speculation that the newborn boy would be able to fly for free for life on Aeroméxico flights as a result of being born on one of the Mexican flag carrier’s aircraft.
But the news outlet ADN 40 reported that there is nothing on the Aeroméxico website to indicate that is the case.
According to a study published in 2020, 74 babies were born on 73 commercial flights between 1929 and 2018. “Seventy-one of the infants survived delivery, two died shortly after delivery and the status of one is unknown,” the study said.
Babies born on flights are called “skyborns,” according to a Condé Nast Traveler report.
While the birth of babies on planes is very rare, the boy born on the flight between Mexico City and Ciudad Juárez on Friday morning is not this month’s first “skyborn.”
Another baby was born on an Air Canada flight from the Caribbean island nation of Saint Lucia to Toronto last week. “The flight was diverted to Bermuda, but the baby was delivered before landing,” Global News reported.
