It was one pregnant woman's worst yet luckiest day when she went into labor mid-air while on board a Qatar Airways flight this week.
The Thai woman started feeling contractions shortly after the flight en route from Doha, Qatar to Bangkok, Thailand took off. Five crew members stepped in to help alongside a doctor who was luckily present.
Alena Fedchenko, a Ukrainian ear, nose and throat doctor, happened to be on the same flight and rushed to the woman's aid. The physician graduated from Kiev's medical university, where it's mandatory for doctors to learn the basics of obstetrics and gynecology.
With Fedchenko and the crew's help, the passenger eventually gave birth to a baby boy even before the plane made an emergency landing in Kolkata, India.
After the aircraft landed in the Indian city at around 3:15 a.m., both the woman and her newborn were transported to a local hospital. They were reported to be doing well following the incident.
Fedchenko spoke of the experience in a statement to BBC, saying even though she was worried about complications, the birth went as smoothly as it could've gone given the circumstances.
"I cut the umbilical cord. The placenta went away. In a split second, I remembered everything I had once learned. Not a single muscle was trembling. I just simply started doing what I had to do. I put on gloves and prepared the woman. The baby was about to come out. It was the second stage of labour," she explained.
The mid-air birth was announced by the plane's pilot and celebrated by passengers who burst into applause and thanked Fedchenko for aiding the delivery.
The doctor was later upgraded to business class and offered complimentary champagne. She wrote about the whole unique experience on Facebook, detailing how great it felt to have helped in the delivery.
Qatar Airways has since issued a statement on the incident
Speaking to The Independent, a Qatar Airways spokesperson confirmed the incident, saying:
"Qatar Airways flight QR 830 traveling from Doha to Bangkok on 3 February was diverted to Kolkata due to a medical emergency – a birth – which was supported by a doctor onboard and five trained cabin crew members.The passenger and her healthy baby boy were immediately taken care of by authorities upon arrival in Kolkata."
"The aircraft then resumed its onward flight to Bangkok. We apologize for any inconvenience caused by the diversion. All passengers were assisted upon arrival into Bangkok to ensure smooth onward connections to their final destination," they added.
Not the first similar birth to be reported in recent months
Turns out going into labor mid-flight is not a rare happening and that's especially true on flights taking off from cities in the Arab world. Last year, a woman delivered a baby girl mid-air on a Middle East Airlines (MEA) flight en route from Doha to Beirut, Lebanon.
In 2017, a baby boy was born on Emirates flight EK075 en route from Dubai, the UAE to Paris, France. The airline was forced to make an emergency landing at Larnaca airport in Cyprus to accommodate the new mom and her child.
A year before that, a Saudi Arabian Airlines flight from Jeddah had to make an unexpected stop in London, the UK when a Saudi woman went into labor en route to New York City, the U.S. Though no gynecologists or obstetricians were on board, flight attendants assisted the mother to deliver a healthy baby girl.
Similar births have also been previously reported on Middle Eastern flights. In April 2017, the cabin crew of Turkish Airlines assisted a passenger, Nafi Diaby, in delivering a baby girl — 12,800 meters up in the air.