A Delta Air Lines flight was diverted after a passenger went into labor mid-flight and eventually gave birth, say passengers and flight data.
Flight 668, a Boeing 757, left John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York at 6:53 a.m. Wednesday, and was headed for San Francisco International Airport, when things took an unexpected turn.
The crew declared a medical emergency roughly an hour into the journey after the passenger started to experience contractions, and the pilot had to be notified.
Priority clearance was requested at John Glenn Columbus International Airport, Ohio, where the plane touched down safely at 8:45 a.m., and paramedics were standing by at the gate,<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/travel/article/The San Francisco Chronicle reported.
“I was on the flight. It was pretty nuts,” a passenger shared on Reddit.
“A woman helped her the whole time until paramedics took over,” they said, adding, “The crew got her full name, and I believe tried to upgrade her, which she denied.”
The passenger said the flight was packed, and Delta confirmed there were 135 passengers and six crew members on board.
The aircraft remained on the ground in Columbus for about 90 minutes before continuing west, finally landing in San Francisco at around noon, around two hours behind schedule, according to flight records and Delta.
The baby was not delivered on board.
Typically, airlines caution women against flying in the later stages of pregnancy.
Delta, however, does not prohibit passengers in their final weeks of pregnancy from traveling, nor do they require a doctor’s note.
“At Delta, we don’t impose restrictions on flying if you’re pregnant and don’t require a medical certificate for you to travel. If you’re traveling after your eighth month, it’s a good idea to check with your doctor to be sure travel is not restricted. Keep in mind when booking, ticket change fees and penalties cannot be waived for pregnancy,” the airline states on its website.
Earlier this year, a baby was born on a Ryanair flight en route to Spain, causing a last-minute diversion to bring the newborn to the ground in France.
A Delta Airlines spokesperson said, “As the health and safety of our people and customers comes before all else at Delta, our flight crew followed procedures to safely divert to Columbus due to an onboard customer medical situation.”
It has been an eventful summer for Delta, with the carrier rarely out of the headlines. Earlier this week, a Texas-bound flight was forced into an emergency landing after part of the plane’s wing came off, in July, a pilot scheduled to fly to the U.S. from Sweden failed a breathalyzer, and in North Carolina, a family sued after they accused a crewmember of using their child’s tablet to record lewd videos.
