A VietJet pilot flying a plane full of passengers from Taipei, Taiwan to Bangkok, Thailand had to do a bit of extra work when a woman onboard his flight went into labor in the plane’s bathroom.
Pilot Jakarin Sararnrakskul – who has 18 years of flying experience – left the cockpit after the cabin crew told him a woman was in labor in one of the plane’s bathrooms, according to the New York Post. He left his copilot to fly the plane and rushed to the mom-to-be. Soon after he arrived by her side, Sararnrakskul helped deliver the baby while the plane was on its way to Bangkok. As it turns out, he was the right man for the job, even though he never delivered a baby before.
“I have been a pilot for 18 years,” Sararnrakskul posted on Instagram. “I just helped a newborn baby on the plane.”
When the airplane touched down, paramedics were waiting on the runway, the Post reports. Both the mother and baby were confirmed to be safe and healthy.
Here’s a little more from Sararnrakskul, who said he was proud that he could bring a baby into the world, from The Post:
“He will be able to tell everyone for the rest of his life that he was born in the air,” he said of the newborn baby boy.
He continued, “I feel so proud that I could help to bring him into the world.”
Sararnrakskul said the crew nicknamed the baby “Sky” in honor of his whirlwind and chaotic birth in the sky.
A 2020 study done by the International Society of Travel Medicine said that between 1929 and 2018, 74 children were born on commercial flights, according to Sky News. I need to know what the place of birth is on the birth certificate. It’s a plane, after all. It’s moving.
Anyway, there’s no word on Sararnrakskul’s medical background, but the man clearly has a gift.
