Woman Delivers Baby On Arik Airplane Enroute London: Mother In Labour Forces Plane To Make Emergency Landing

An Arik Air flight with over 100 passengers en
route to London Sunday was forced to make an
emergency landing in Palmas, Spain, as a woman
went into labour and gave birth while the aircraft
was airborne. The pilot was said to have requested the
emergency landing on the advice of two doctors
who were on board the aircraft and had helped
the mother deliver the baby. After the birth of the
child, the mother, whose identity has so far been
withheld, was said to have experienced excessive hemorrhaging, necessitating the emergency
landing. At the time of this report, both mother and child
were said to have been stable but were left
behind in Palmas for monitoring by medical
personnel, while the flight continued on its
journey to London. On enquiry, THISDAY learnt that the airline was
trying to ascertain if the woman had presented a
false medical report from her doctor on the true
duration of her pregnancy or she had gone into
premature labour while on board the flight. Women with full term pregnancies are not
allowed to travel by air, according to International
Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) regulations. As
such, intending pregnant passengers are required
to present medical reports certifying that they are
less than 32 weeks pregnant before they are allowed to fly. A source said the airline was carrying out a full-
scale investigation to ascertain the genuineness
of the medical report presented by the woman.
Arik Air’s management said yesterday that if it is
discovered that the woman was given a false
report to enable her fly, it would file a special complaint against the doctor who had issued the
medical report to the Nigeria Medical Association
(NMA) for endangering her life and that of the
baby, as well that of other passengers on board
the flight. THISDAY learnt that when the passenger went into
labour, the cabin crew had asked that doctors on
board the flight to identify themselves. Following
the announcement, two of the passengers came
forward, saying they were doctors and assisted in
the delivery of the baby. Normally, a source disclosed that in the few
instances where women have given birth on
board, the aircraft would continue its flight to its
final destination. However, the Arik flight was
forced to make an emergency landing following
the advice of the doctors that the woman was bleeding excessively. But the airline did not know whether the decision
to make an emergency landing by the doctors
was right, as it was not ascertained if the medical
personnel were OandG doctors (obstetrics and
gynaecology) who might have been better at
handling the emergency birth.