Another Flight Diverted Due to Unexpected Delivery
Joe Cortez January 06, 2015
A Delta flight was forced to divert to Salt Lake City after a woman went into labor mid-air.
A new flyer and his mother are both in good health after the baby was nearly delivered 30,000 feet in the air. CNN reports a Delta Air Lines flight from San Francisco International Airport (SFO) to Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (MSP) was forced to make an emergency landing at Salt Lake City International Airport (SLC) last week after the mother went into labor.
Allison Peery’s water broke shortly after takeoff and she began experiencing rapid contractions. The soon-to-be mother alerted flight attendants, who then declared a medical emergency.
A pediatrician who was onboard the aircraft immediately jumped in to assist Peery. Flight attendants also did what they could to help, clearing an aisle and setting up a privacy curtain for Peery.
“They were great,” Peery told KTVX. “[They were] helping me breathe because we hadn’t done our classes yet, so we were really kind of out of our element.”
The flight made an emergency landing at SLC 30 minutes after Peery went into labor. Emergency crews met the aircraft upon landing. Paramedics escorted Peery and her husband to the University of Utah Hospital, where Peery gave birth to a healthy 4-pound, 6-ounce baby boy.
This was the second flight to be diverted due to an unexpected birth in December. Earlier in the month, a Southwest Airlines flight was forced to land at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) after a woman gave birth shortly after takeoff.
[Photo: iStock]
A woman who delivers a 4 lb baby is not guilty of bad planning if she causes a plane to be diverted.
I'm not sure if you should call it bad planning. We didn't fly during my wife's third trimester. However, the subject of this article was still two months away from their due date. Many people say that is still a safe time to travel.
How do you know it's bad planning? I don't see anything indicating how far along this woman was, nor is there any information about the advice she received from her doctor.
No word on the compensation the other passengers who missed their meetings and connections and did not get to see their families have received? This isn't just a happy story, it comes with a lot of victims of bad planning and they are not afforded any thought here :( .