She became a mommy on the fly!
While aboard an international flight earlier this month, an expecting mother was forced to totally wing it when she unexpectedly went into labor and gave birth on the aircraft.
“Yay!,” cheered applauding passengers on a Pegasus Airlines plane headed from Istanbul, Turkey to Marseille, France, as paramedics at the Sabiha Gökçen International Airport marched onto the sky bus to assist the unidentified woman who’d welcomed her premature child moments before takeoff.
Footage of the high-octane account showed awestricken flyers craning their necks for a glimpse of the impromptu birth. One big-hearted passenger is seen collecting what appears to be baby clothes from other travelers as a gift to the infant.
According to reports, the pregnant woman began experiencing intense labor as the flight crew made final preparations for departure from the airport.
Flight attendants conducted first aid on the woman before moving her to the back of the plane for the birth.
A female paramedic carried the swaddled newborn — who isn’t heard making noise — off the aircraft, per video footage.
The child was reportedly taken to a nearby hospital via ambulance for further care.
This bundle of joy is far from the only tot to be airborne.
Kendria Rhoden, then 21, of Hartford, Connecticut, welcomed a baby boy in the clouds while on an American Airlines flight from New York to the Dominican Republic in October 2022.
A few weeks later, in December, a new mom — who reportedly had no clue she was even pregnant — gave birth while journeying from Ecuador to Spain.
She named the baby Maximiliano, in honor of one of the helpful passengers who aided in her safe delivery.
These back-to-back baby debuts aside, childbirth on airplanes is uncommon because pregnant women are rarely allowed to fly in their third trimester, according to global residence planning hub Best-Citizenships — which notes that there have only been approximately 75 babies born above the birds in the past century.
In fact, medical aviation firm MedAire notes that friendly-sky births only happen to about one in every 26 million passengers.
Dr. Paulo Alves, the brand’s global medical director, told Condé Nast Traveler in 2018: “It’s not the best place for you to have your child, for many reasons.”
“For one thing, the air is thinner, so it’s harder for the baby to breathe,” he said. “It’s like giving birth to a premature child in Mexico City, altitude-wise.”