Baby born on American Airlines jet given fitting name

Sky Baby: Flight 868 unexpectedly gained a passenger. Photo / Ross Sokolovski

There was an additional passenger onboard the American Airlines plane when it arrived safely in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Last Wednesday, a healthy baby girl was born to passenger Nereida Araujo who was flying from Florida's Tampa airport on flight 868. The baby who was safely delivered on the runway arrived as an extra surprise during what is traditionally America's busiest time for air travel.

Her mother decided that the baby's name should befit her unusual birthplace, calling her: Lizyana Sky Taylor.

"Baby Sky decided to enter the world on a plane," Araujo wrote in a social media post. "Mommi handled it well thanks to everybody who assisted us with love & care."

According to a spokesperson for the airline, there was a call for medical professionals to assist during the flight of just under two hours, and the baby was delivered shortly after landing in Charlotte.

"Paramedics, along with the Charlotte Fire Department, assisted in the delivery of a healthy baby girl at the Charlotte Douglas International Airport on the jetway," Mecklenburg EMS Agency told USA Today.

The local radio station WSOC reported that Araujo was 38 weeks pregnant and cleared to fly by her doctor. However, her water broke on approach to Charlotte airport.

"I was sleeping and I felt like a pop in my lower back," Araujo told WSOC. "I just felt like liquid and I woke my husband up."

Due to the need for both clearance by an expectant mother's doctor and the airline, babies being born on planes are exceptionally rare.

According to CN Traveller fewer than 60 recorded incidents of babies born on planes. This is in spite of 3.5 billion passengers taking to the skies each year.

In the case of Baby Sky, who was born on a domestic flight, it was less complicated than it could have been.

Doctors' certificates are usually required for pregnancies beyond 28 weeks and international airlines have much stricter cut-offs for women flying while expectant. Etihad for example will not carry woman who are over 36 weeks pregnant.

For "sky babies" it is hard to legally determine nationality, which although rare, can cause further headaches for new parents.

In most cases the child is assigned the birthplace of the airspace they are flying over.

Where airspace cannot be determined many airlines have signed an agreement called the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, which means that a child born on their planes are offered citizenship by birth in the country where the carrier is registered.

In 2009 a mother and her baby born on AirAsia flight from Malaysia were given life time of free air travel.