PAL Passenger on Route to San Francisco Gives Birth Inflight

A Philippine Airlines passenger gave birth to a healthy baby boy while on board PAL's Boeing 747 flight en route to San Francisco from Manila on Monday, 19 September (20 September Manila time).

Aida Alamillo, a passenger of PAL PR flight 104, with seat number 83J, gave birth with the assistance of three nurses on board and several cabin crew led by Flight Steward Francis Lloyd Lobo.

The passenger, who delivered pre-term at 35 weeks, was aided in doing deep-breathing and relaxation exercises, as a prelude to the birth of her child.

The baby boy was described by Flight Purser Antonia Castañeda in her Flight Incident Report (FIR) as having "good skin color". She wrote that "baby started to breast feed", and gave a "loud cry" upon emerging from his mother's womb. The mother was described to have had "minimal pain".

While such an incident is considered a rarity, PAL's cabin crew are trained in handling child-birth situations inflight.

On landing, mother and baby were taken to the Mills Peninsula Hospital in Burlingame.

The PAL flight departed Manila at 22:24 and arrived San Francisco 19:27. The actual time of birth was at 15:25 (US time).

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