Plane Gets New Passenger Between Airports

Southwest craft makes emergency landing after baby is born on SFO-PHX flight
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 10, 2014 11:54 AM CST
Plane Gets New Passenger Between Airports
In this March 22, 2012, file photo, a Southwest Airlines flight prepares to land at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas.   (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)

A baby born yesterday probably has more frequent-flier miles than any other newborn alive. A Southwest Airlines flight bound for Phoenix from San Francisco made an emergency landing in LA not long after takeoff yesterday when a woman on board the plane went into labor and produced an addition to the passenger manifest, the AP reports. A Southwest spokeswoman says the flight crew, as well as a nurse and doctor on the flight, helped usher in the new neonatal nomad, and the unidentified mom and baby were whisked off to the hospital by paramedics when the plane landed and were said to be in good condition. If all follows the usual protocol, the baby will likely be given a birth certificate from California, the state in which the plane landed, ABC News reports.

It was a somewhat confusing moment for some of the passengers. "All of a sudden I heard a baby cry like a gurgling sound, like a baby that had too much milk or whatever, and I'm like, 'There's no babies on this flight,'" a passenger who had been seated near the mother tells the AP. Another passenger experienced relief upon finding out what the in-air request for a doctor was all about: "The captain announced congratulations for the arrival of this new baby boy, so we all started applauding. … It was confusing because we thought someone was going to die, not be born." The other 111 passengers were redirected onto another plane to Phoenix, and the birthing plane was removed from service for cleaning. (Click to read about how a baby born to a Ugandan woman who resides in the US ended up a Canadian citizen after being born on a flight from Amsterdam to Boston.)

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