Dr Khan leapt into action to assist the woman, who gave birth to a healthy girl (Picture: Hassan Khan)
Passengers onboard a Wizz Air flight from Jordan to London disembarked the aircraft with a brand new traveller: a newborn baby.
Two hours into the flight from Amman to Luton Airport, a woman went into labour, prompting junior doctor Hassan Khan to leap into action.
After the crew called for a doctor, Dr Khan, 28, volunteered to help the woman who was lying outside the cockpit door.
Dr Khan, who works at Basildon Hospital in Essex, had been on holiday to Jordan with his friends when the drama unfolded.
He said his experience in the neonatal resuscitation unit helped him assist the baby girl, who initially came out ‘a little blue’.
Dr Khan explained: ‘I told the flight attendants what equipment I needed – which would include a neonatal-sized oxygen mask, a clamp for the umbilical cord and a stethoscope – none of which they had on a plane, of course.’
Dr Khan and his friends took a photo with the flight crew after their extraordinary experience (Picture: Hassan Khan)
With the help of Dr Khan and a passenger who spoke Arabic to translate for the unnamed woman, a healthy baby girl was delivered – with the only equipment used being towels.
The Wizz Air flight then diverted to Brindisi Airport in Southern Italy so the new mum and her baby girl could receive medical treatment.
Dr Khan said: ‘I was actually late to my shift because of this diversion, but thankfully they were very impressed and wanted the full update.
‘My consultant congratulated me and said it was a really good job. People were saying it was miraculous – I only realised how significant it was after I had the chance to process it all.’
The arrival of the little girl on the Wizz Air flight marks the 75th baby to be born on a commercial flight – and Dr Khan said the woman and her family updated him from the Italian hospital to say both mum and baby are doing well.
‘It was a big sigh of relief, some positive closure to the whole situation,’ he said.
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The only equipment he had were white towels (Picture: Hassan Khan)
Other miracle mid-air births
It’s not common to give birth on planes. In fact, it only occurs with roughly one in 26,000,000 passengers.
This statistic is helped by the fact that most doctors don’t recommend pregnant women fly past 36 weeks pregnant, or 32 weeks pregnant with twins or triplets.
Despite the rarity of birth on a plane, it’s happened on multiple occasions in the past few years.
In 2017, a baby born prematurely on a Jet Airways flight from Saudi Arabia to India was given free air tickets for life.
It was the first mid-flight birth for the India-based airline, hence the generous gift to the new baby.
In 2021, a woman who didn’t know she was pregnant gave birth halfway through a flight to a premature baby.
What happens if you go into labour on a plane?
The Wizz Air flight to Luton landed with one extra passenger onboard (Picture: NurPhoto)
Going into labour more than 30,000 feet in the air is not ideal by any means – but most flight attendants are trained for basic medical emergencies.
One flight attendant previously told Business Insider: ‘I could deliver a baby if I have to.’
Pilots are alerted to the situation and often ask if anyone onboard is a doctor or nurse, who can assist with the birth.
But the baby’s citizenship can be questioned – if a baby is born over land, some countries grant citizenship automatically, like the US.
Some factors also include the country where the plane is registered, the parents nationality and the destination.
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