A Canadian woman recently welcomed her newborn baby into the world at over 36,000 feet, having given birth onboard a Royal Air Maroc flight from Casablanca to Montreal. This is the third time a baby has been born on a flight between the two cities.
On Friday, February 2, a Royal Air Maroc Boeing 787 Dreamliner became the special birthplace of a baby girl. The aircraft, registration CN-RGC, was operating flight AT208 from Casablanca Mohammed V International Airport (CMN) to Montreal Pierre Elliot Trudeau Airport (YUL). CN-RGC is a 9-year-old 787-8 delivered to RAM in April 2015. Fascinatingly, it is also set to celebrate its birthday this month, having been rolled out of production in February 2015.
According to Flightradar24, the Montreal-bound flight departed Casablanca at 17:06 local time (16:06 UTC) and landed at 18:00 Montreal time (23:00 UTC). As reported by le360, the pregnant Canadian woman began to feel contractions about 3 hours and 45 minutes into the flight. To get her better assistance, the cabin crew asked if any doctors were onboard.
Fortunately, some medical professionals of different nationalities were happy to assist. A team of doctors and nurses successfully delivered the baby in less than 20 minutes. The airline congratulated both the parents and the medical team, saying,
“A big congratulations to our crew! Congratulations to the happy parents, and welcome to the newborn!”
Local reports suggest that the baby and mother were safe when disembarking. Furthermore, we will not be surprised to see the baby girl grow into an aviation enthusiast, taking her first flight at less than one minute old. Royal Air Maroc flies between Casablanca and Montreal nine times a week. On Sundays and Fridays, flights are operated twice daily with the Dreamliner. At 3,070 NM (5,687 km), CMN-YUL is the Moroccan carrier’s sixth-longest international route.
What legal rights do babies born in-flight have?
A mid-flight childbirth is extremely rare, occurring approximately once in every 26 million passengers. As such, cabin crew are not usually trained for onboard delivery. However, le360 reports that the RAM crew was prepared for this type of event. Furthermore, an aircraft is equipped with basic medical kits for various emergencies, but it does not hold most of the equipment you would find at a maternity hospital.
Photo: Boeing
Despite the low chances of the crew encountering such an event, this is not the first childbirth involving a Casablanca-Montreal flight. As reported by Morocco World News, in 2018, a Canadian-Moroccan woman gave birth to a baby a few hours into the flight. Similarly, the airline reported that a doctor onboard had helped to deliver the newborn. In February 2014, a 33-year-old Moroccan woman also gave birth to a baby girl on the same service. About six months earlier, another passenger had given birth to a boy on a RAM flight to Bologna, Italy.
A doctor on board delivered the baby with help from the cabin crew.
In July 2022, Casablanca Airport was the birthplace of another girl who was delivered by the Emergency Medical Unit members of the Moroccan Airports Authority (ONDA). This occurred while the mother, a 27-year-old lady, was preparing to board a flight to Madrid. She would only have been able to travel with her child after two days, as most airlines do not permit flying with infants younger than 48 hours. However, medical professionals recommend waiting seven days to three months.
What are your thoughts on this story? What would you name your child if they were born on a flight? Please let us know in the comments!
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