Carrigan H.

A picture of a sky.

On April 24th a passenger on a Delta Air Lines flight from Atlanta to Oregon, with 153 passengers, gave birth to a healthy baby girl just before landing at Portland International Airport on Friday night. Ashley Blair was on her way to Oregon so she could give birth to her baby with her mother there, but that didn’t exactly end up working out for her as she went into labor 20 minutes before the flight landed.

Two passengers on the flight that happened to be paramedics assisted her through the birth, using blankets and other resources from the passengers. They asked flight attendants for a sterile set of medical tools, but when neither were available they had to improvise and use a shoelace as a tourniquet to start an IV. The baby was delivered very quickly about 10 minutes prior to landing.

After the plane began taxiing to the jetway, they handed the baby to Blair, and everyone celebrated by taking photos. A responding crew from Portland Airport Fire & Rescue “found the mother and baby healthy, and the new family was transported to a local hospital for observation. Blair stated that she was extremely grateful for everyone that helped her on the plane and will forever remember this day.