It was a true mid-air miracle on Sunday evening (30 January 2022) when a healthy baby boy was delivered on board United Airlines Flight 997 two hours to landing.
The plane had departed from Kotoka International Airport in Accra and was bound for Washington Dulles International Airport on an 11-hour flight.
The sky star, Dr Stephen Ansah-Addo, a dermatology resident at the University of Michigan, heard the call for a health-care professional and jumped into action.
He was joined by a nurse from Dayton, Ohio, and a United flight attendant who is also a nurse.
The mother was travelling from Accra to Washington, DC when she started having contractions. She was not expecting to deliver until late February, but the flight was halfway across the Atlantic when she went into labour.
The team turned the area behind business class into a labour ward, putting down blankets and towels. The mother’s contractions were getting stronger and more frequent, and after just an hour, Ansah-Addo felt the baby’s head.
A few pushes later, a healthy baby boy was crying on board. The mother and baby “are in good health”, according to the airline.
“Our crew was amazing, they acted quickly, assisted the medical professionals onboard and ensured everyone stayed safe throughout the flight,” United wrote in a statement to CNN Travel.
“And we were especially thrilled to see the plane land with one extra, especially beautiful, customer on board.”
Witness account: “I just started praying”
Tiani Warren of Los Angeles was on United Flight 997. She was returning from a three-week trip to Ghana, where she visited the Genesis Shishidzee School in James Town, an older neighbourhood in Accra, to help the children there.
She told CNN Travel she was in business class, and the woman who gave birth was in the row behind her, though they were separated by the emergency exits. That meant that the labouring woman had space in front of her seat to lie down.
“I was asleep … I thought I was dreaming when I heard moaning. I got out of my seat, and I saw someone on the ground. A nurse was over her,” Warren said.
It took Warren a minute to realise fully what was happening.
When she did, “I thought, ‘Oh God, I know she is not about to give birth on this plane.’ I was literally counting her contractions – seven to ten minutes apart. I was, like, freaking out. Oh, my God.
“Then the doctor started working on her. They brought out an IV to put in her,” Warren said. “She was moaning and yelling, but half the people on the plane didn’t know what was going on.”
Adding to the tension, the plane encountered turbulence during parts of the flight, Warren said.
“I just started praying over her out loud as she was starting to push. She was crying. Before you knew it, the baby came out.”
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