Baby Born on Plane: Woman Gives Birth to Boy During Flight to Italy

A baby was born on a plane recently, A passenger on a Royal Air Maroc flight from Casablanca, Morocco, to Bologna, Italy gave birth to a baby boy while the plane was mid-flight, forcing the jet to divert.

According to the official Moroccan news agency MAP, a 39-year-old woman went into labor shortly after the Royal Air Maroc flight took off on Sunday. The flight was supposed to land in Bologna, but it was diverted to Barcelona's El Prat airport as the woman was in labor. The baby was born just before the plane landed. The airline did not give any more details about the passenger, including her nationality, the Associated Press reports.

There happened to be a midwife on the plane who helped with the delivery along with crew members. Both the mother and the child were taken to Sant Joan de Deu hospital in Barcelona. The airline says both are in good health. The mother was traveling to Italy for vacation and the baby arrived several weeks before the due date. After the flight landed in Barcelona, it continued onto Bologna about 50 minutes later. The airline thanked the midwife who helped the crew deliver the child.

This isn't the first time a baby was born on board. In March, Fatoumatta Kaba, the wife of a Gambian diplomat, gave birth to a baby boy on an international flight from Johannesburg, South Africa, to New York City. In January, a passenger gave birth aboard an Armavia airline flight heading to Armenia and named her daughter after one of the flight attendants who helped with the delivery. Last April, a woman gave birth to a boy on a Delta flight from Africa to Atlanta with the help of a doctor on board and a flight attendant.