A passenger seven months pregnant gave birth aboard an ITA Airways flight from Dakar to Rome, forcing the aircraft to turn back over the Sahara as crew members and medical professionals onboard assisted with the delivery.
The incident occurred during the night of April 29-30 on flight AZ855 operated by an Airbus A321neo carrying 155 passengers and seven crew members, according to Italian media and the airline. About an hour after departure from Senegal, cabin crew alerted the cockpit to a medical emergency before the woman went into labor minutes later.
The aircraft was flying over the Sahara and Mauritania when pilots coordinated with ITA Airways’ operations center and decided to abandon the route to Rome and return to Dakar, the nearest major airport equipped to handle a premature birth.
Two passengers, an Italian doctor and a French nurse, assisted cabin crew during the delivery.
The baby boy, later named Mohammed Alessandro in tribute to both his origins and the flight captain, was born shortly after the aircraft initiated its turnaround, according to reports from Corriere della Sera. Both mother and child were reported in good health.
ITA Airways described the birth as the first recorded onboard delivery in the airline’s history. Births during commercial flights remain extremely rare, with aviation studies estimating such events occur only once every several million passengers.
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