Related videos:
Ashley Blair, a woman residing in Tennessee, gave birth to her daughter aboard a Delta Air Lines flight last Friday, as the Boeing 737 departing from Atlanta was about 30 minutes from landing at Portland International Airport in Oregon.
The baby, named Brielle Renee Blair, arrived two weeks earlier than expected and weighed 2.5 kilograms (5.5 pounds), according to a report from the The Associated Press (AP) reproduced by Telemundo 51.
Blair was traveling to Oregon to be with her mother during the delivery, but the plans unexpectedly changed in the air.
Two paramedics traveling as passengers—Tina Fritz and Kaarin Powell—were the ones who assisted with the delivery.
Both were returning from a vacation in the Dominican Republic and were attending to another sick passenger at the back of the plane when a flight attendant asked them to check on Blair.
Upon noticing that the contractions were becoming more frequent, they cleared the area around the passenger and requested blankets and an emergency obstetric kit from the crew.
The plane did not have that kit, so they had to improvise: they obtained blankets from other passengers and used a flight attendant's shoelace to tie the umbilical cord.
Powell also removed one of his own shoelaces to use it as a tourniquet and to establish an intravenous line.
At the most critical moment, the flight attendants ordered them to sit down because the plane was about to land. The paramedics refused.
"We were saying, 'No! No!'", Fritz told AP. "Blair did three really good pushes, and the baby came out very, very quickly. It was something beautiful," remarked Fritz.
Powell cut the umbilical cord while holding the newborn, and the plane landed moments later.
"The baby turned pink immediately. She was adorable. The mom acted like a rock star," added Fritz.
The flight was carrying 153 passengers; with the birth, they became 154.
After landing, the medical personnel from Portland Airport Fire & Rescue found mother and daughter in good health and transported them to a local hospital for observation.
Childbirth on commercial flights is extremely rare. In May 2022, a woman gave birth in the bathroom of a Frontier Airlines flight heading to Florida, assisted by a flight attendant. In February 2019, another birth occurred on a JetBlue flight bound for Fort Lauderdale. In March 2018, an Angolan woman gave birth on a flight from Havana, with the plane diverted to Cartagena. In December 2016, another delivery took place on a flight between Philadelphia and Orlando.
Delta Air Lines stated in its announcement that a doctor and two nurses assisted the flight attendants, a version that Fritz denied: according to her, there was no doctor, and the only nurse present stayed to attend to the first sick passenger. The airline did not respond to the AP's request for clarification.
"We extend our heartfelt thanks to the crew and medical volunteers on board who intervened to provide care to a customer shortly before landing in Portland," Delta stated in its announcement.
Fritz has kept in touch with Blair since her birth. "I feel that now we are friends forever," the paramedic said.
Filed under: