OAO Aeroflot, Russia’s largest airline, diverted a Moscow-bound flight Tuesday from the Ukrainian city of Simferopol to Kharkiv after a passenger gave birth to a girl in mid-flight, the company said. The crew safely delivered the baby yesterday with the help of a nurse who was among the passengers, the Moscow-based carrier said today in an e-mailed statement.
The birth was the first on an Aeroflot route since a boy was born in September 2005 on a Moscow-Los Angeles flight. The woman was 29 to 30 weeks pregnant, meaning she wasn’t in violation of air travel regulations, the Kharkiv airport said in a statement on its website.
“The young mother and newborn were conscious when the plane landed and were taken to a local perinatal center,” the airport’s press service said in the statement. The mother and the girl, who weighed 1.05 kilograms (2.3 pounds), are in satisfactory condition, according to the statement.
By Scott Rose, Reuters
