Woman delivers in-flight after plane makes emergency landing at Hyderabad airport

A woman from Philippines delivered a baby girl inside a Manila-bound flight after it made an emergency landing at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Hyderabad on May 8. The woman, who reportedly works in Saudi Arabia, was 35 weeks pregnant and her due date was three weeks away. However, soon after she boarded the flight, she developed labour pain and the flight had to make an emergency landing at the Hyderabad airport.

A team of doctors and nurses from Apollo Cradle were informed in advance and present at the airport before the flight landed at Hyderabad. They rushed inside the plane and performed the delivery in the space behind the seats inside the flight. The woman was in her advanced stage of labour and hence couldn’t be taken to the hospital or the airport for the delivery. The baby girl weighed around 3.2 kg at the time of birth.

Since the medical team was not allowed to carry any sharp objects inside the flight due to security reasons, they could neither completely cut the placenta nor cut the umbilical cord. According to reports, both the mother and the child were in a critical state of health and to enable further medical care, they were brought to Apollo Cradle in Jubilee Hills. After their health was stabilised, the umbilical cord was cut with necessary precautions.

The pediatric team at Apollo confirmed to the media on Monday that the mother and baby have recovered and the baby girl is now fit to travel.

This is not the first time that a flight made an emergency landing at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport due to medical emergencies. Four months ago, another 40-year-old Filipino woman delivered a baby mid-air in a flight that was en route Dubai to Manila. The flight landed at RGIA but the premature baby did not survive.

In August 2016, a Filipino woman named Holiday delivered a pre-mature girl mid-flight when she was travelling from the UAE to Philippines.