While someone rushing to give birth on a plane often serves as inspiration for a movie plot, the situation is quite rare in the real world, as almost all airlines have rules prohibiting travel in the final weeks. of pregnancy and will prohibit those who are seen visibly close. expiration date from flight boarding.
For US-based airlines, the cutoff point is typically 36 weeks for domestic flights and 32 weeks for international flights (a typical pregnancy lasts 40 weeks), while those with a doctor’s note can fly up to 38 weeks pregnant.
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But earlier this week emergency work was carried out on a flight from Turkey to Marseille in France for European low-cost carrier Pegasus Airlines. The flight had not yet taken off from Istanbul’s Sabiha Gökçen International Airport when a woman began moaning.
@estuartlondres1 How on earth was the mother allowed to fly when she knows her due date, yet it’s great to see her give birth safely on the flight? #flight #Istanbul #mother #giving birth #plane #emergency #landing #share #sharecare
Customers applaud and bring baby clothes as paramedics help a woman give birth
Footage captured by one of the other passengers on the plane shows other travelers talking and turning to watch as paramedics remove a newborn baby from the plane; according first reports From the scene, flight attendants moved the woman to the back of the plane and canceled the takeoff when she went into labor.
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Although emergency personnel arrived at the scene with the aim of transferring her to a nearby hospital, the labor progressed too quickly and the baby was born inside the plane. Another video from the plane shows passengers cheering and a man getting up to bring baby clothes to the mother as a gift.
Many of the other passengers stood up or turned their necks to see the mother or newborn.
“How on earth was the mother allowed to fly when she knows the due date?” wrote the TikToker behind the @Stuartlondon1 account on the social media platform.
Pegasus had not responded to requests for comment on the health of the mother and baby or whether the flight took off after the birth.
This is what happens when you go into labor mid-flight
A similar situation occurred at Chicago-based United Airlines. (UAL) – Get a free report flight from San Francisco to Hawaii just a few weeks ago after a pregnant woman went into labor mid-flight, the pilot turned the plane around and returned to San Francisco International Airport before the woman gave birth.
While the woman on board the Pegasus Airlines flight fortunately went into labor before the flight’s departure, airlines make serious efforts to avoid such a situation due to its dangers (while flight attendants receive training on how to help give birth). light to a baby in an emergency, the lack of medical experts and facilities creates an inherently risky situation) and the ability to disrupt the flight.
Depending on the airspace in which the birth occurs and the immigration rules of a given country, giving birth on an international flight can also create complications around the citizenship of the new child.
“Pilots also declare an emergency and ask air traffic control to prioritize landing at an airport close to the destination and divert the plane there,” said former pilot and University of Nevada aviation history professor Dan Bubb. once said The exciting one. “The goal is to land safely and immediately find professional medical care for the passenger.”
