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At 37,000 feet, an African woman gave birth while she was traveling on a commercial flight from Havana to Bogota, prompting the plane to deviate from the route and land in the colombian city of Cartagena.
The delivery was assisted by one of the passengers of flight AV255 of the Colombian airline Avianca, the company said in a statement Sunday.
"The captain diverted the flight to the city of Cartagena, north of Colombia, being the closest destination on the route to serve the family," he added.
Originally from Angola, the woman was traveling with her two-year-old daughter and her identity and age have not been released to the press.
Meanwhile the baby was admitted to an intensive care unit "taking into account that it was a premature birth," the Colombian Family Welfare Institute (ICBF) said in its statement.
"Until now it has not been possible to contact relatives of the mother based in Havana (Cuba)," the institute said.
As to the citizenship of the rare babies born on board of planes, immigration experts say such matter is decided depending on few factors.
If the country where the flight is from is signed to the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness agreement, then the new born baby will be a national of where the airplane is registered. If not, then the child is entitled to receiving the nationality of the country over which the airplane was flying during the delivery.
British citizen Shona Owen was born on board an airplane in the 1990s and had publizized her story last year. Her place of birth is labeled as “on an aeroplane 10 miles south of Mayfield, Sussex” according to U.K. media.
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