Baby Born Aboard Delta Flight Leaving ATL: Reports

ATLANTA, GA — A sky-high special moment, a mother recently gave birth to a baby girl aboard a Delta Air Lines flight en route from Atlanta to Oregon.

Tennessee resident Ashley Blair was aboard Delta Flight 478 when it departed from Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport around 7:45 p.m. Friday. The Boeing 737-900 was bound for Portland, Oregon, during a five-hour flight.

Blair was flying to Oregon to be with her mother for the birth, but did not make it. She went into labor about half an hour from Portland.

Flight details showed the plane arrived 20 minutes early; her newborn was about two weeks early. Shoestrings and blankets aided in the delivery of newborn Brielle Renee.

Paramedic Tina Fritz told The Associated Press on Monday that she and another paramedic, Kaarin Powell, were returning home after vacationing in the Dominican Republic. They had been helping a nurse attend to the medical needs of another passenger at the back of the plane when a flight attendant asked them to check on Blair.

They found Blair was in labor, and contractions were getting close. It was a full flight with 153 passengers on board, so they began moving the passengers next to Blair back to their seats to make room for the delivery.

They asked flight attendants for blankets and an obstetrical kit, a sterile set of medical tools used in emergency childbirth. Fritz said they had to improvise when neither was available.

They got blankets from other passengers and a shoestring from a flight attendant to tie off the umbilical cord. Powell tore out one of her own shoes laces to use as a tourniquet to start an IV.

Then, Fritz recalled, Blair yelled: “OK, it’s time. I got to push.”

As she was doing so, flight attendants told Fritz and Powell they needed to sit, because the plane was about to touch down. They refused.

Blair gave three “super, really good pushes," Fritz said, and baby Brielle was born.

Powell cut the umbilical cord and sat down while holding the baby. Fritz sat down next to her, and the wheels hit the runway.

Crew members relayed in flight audio that the baby girl had been born, according to a CBS News report. Emergency medical workers were reportedly available upon landing.

A responding crew from Portland Airport Fire and Rescue “found the mother and baby healthy, and the new family was transported to a local hospital for observation,” Port of Portland spokesperson Molly Prescott said in an email to The Associated Press.

In a statement, Delta said a doctor and two nurses assisted flight attendants, but Fritz said there was no doctor and the only nurse stayed with the first ailing passenger.

“We extend our sincere thanks to the crew and medical volunteers on board who stepped in to provide care to a customer onboard prior to landing in Portland. The health and safety of our customers is always our top priority, and we wish the new family all the best,” Delta said in the statement.

Fritz, who has been keeping in touch with Blair since the birth, said she's been a little overwhelmed by all the attention.

“I feel like we’re friends now forever,” Fritz said.

The Associated Press contributed reporting and writing.