The woman, Diaby Nafi, went into labour shortly after her fight took off from Guinea’s capital Conakry, for Istanbul. Nafi is of Guinean origin. Lucky for her, the plane’s cabin crew has received training for just such an eventuality.
“The mother gave birth while standing, and we received help from several other passengers,” said Bouthayna Inanir, one of the flight attendants who helped with the delivery.
As baby girl ‘Kadiju’ made her appearance, the overcome cabin crew chief wiped away tears of joy.
The Turkish Airlines flight’s pilot then made an emergency landing in Burkina Faso so the mother and the newborn girl could receive medical attention before continuing on to Istanbul. They are both said to be in good health.
Welcome on board Princess! Applause goes to our cabin crew! 👏🏻👶🏽 pic.twitter.com/FFPI16Jqgt
— Turkish Airlines (@TurkishAirlines) April 7, 2017
Passengers and flight attendants took pictures with the baby and shared them on social media.
Just a few days before Kadiju’s birth, another woman gave birth mid air, also to a baby girl, but under wildly different circumstances, CNN reported last week.
The woman, Maria Josefa Pingo Sanchez, 20, started to give birth as she was being airlifted by helicopter from a flooded village in north Peru. Her baby girl came into the world 20 minutes before the helicopter landed.
Pingo named the baby ‘Cielo’, which means ‘sky’, in Spanish. Turns out, Pingo had been in labour for two days.
“It was time. She wanted to be born mid air,” Pingo told Peruvian media.
