Fasten your seat belt. Stow your tray table. And prepare for delivery.
A passenger aboard a Delta Air Lines flight from Atlanta gave birth to a healthy 5½-pound baby girl just before the Boeing 737 touched down at Portland International Airport in Oregon on Friday night.
Two off-duty paramedics who happened to be on the flight stepped in, borrowing blankets from fellow passengers and using a shoelace to tie off the umbilical cord, reports AP.
Baby Brielle Renee Blair arrived about two weeks early. The plane was roughly 20 minutes from landing.
Mom Ashley Blair, a Tennessee resident, had been flying to Oregon to be with her own mother for the birth, but didn’t quite make it. She went into labor about 30 minutes outside Portland.
Paramedic Tina Fritz told the Associated Press(AP) on Monday that she and fellow paramedic Kaarin Powell were returning home from a vacation in the Dominican Republic. They’d been helping a nurse tend to another passenger at the back of the plane when a flight attendant asked them to check on Blair.
They found Blair in active labor, with contractions coming fast. The flight was full, 153 passengers on board, soon to be 154, so they began moving nearby passengers to make room for the delivery.
They asked flight attendants for blankets and an obstetrical kit, but neither was available. So they improvised: blankets from other passengers, and a shoelace from a flight attendant to tie off the umbilical cord. Powell even pulled out one of her own shoelaces to use as a tourniquet for an IV.
Then, Fritz recalled, the mother announced: “OK, it’s time. I’ve got to push.” Just as she began pushing, flight attendants told Fritz and Powell they needed to sit—the plane was about to land.
“We’re like, ‘No! No!’” Fritz said. Blair gave three “super, really good pushes, and the baby came out really quickly,” Fritz said. “It was nice.”
Powell cut the umbilical cord and sat down holding the baby. Fritz sat next to her. The wheels hit the runway.
“Baby pinked up right away,” Fritz said. “She was gorgeous. Mom was a rock star.”
As the plane taxied to the gate, they handed baby Brielle to Blair, and passengers celebrated with photos. Port of Portland spokesperson Molly Prescott said firefighters from Portland Airport Fire & Rescue “found the mother and baby healthy, and the new family was transported to a local hospital for observation.”
Delta released a statement thanking the crew and medical volunteers, though Fritz noted there was no doctor on board—only one nurse, who stayed with the first ill passenger. Delta did not immediately clarify.
