What happens if born on a plane

There is no universal rule for how a country determines the citizenship of a newborn. These countries are mostly in the Americas and include the United States and Canada.

And with the expansion of air travel, these laws had to extend to the heavens as well. The expectant mother was in luck. Dutch doctor Wym Bakker, who had been helping women give birth in the bush in Ghana, was also on board. Fearing being left alone with a new baby and Claire if the plane was forced to land in Africa, Debbie tried desperately to hold on until the plane reached Europe.

On approach to London's Gatwick airport, with the blinds drawn, soft music playing, her very own doctor and cabin crew on standby, Shona Kirsty Yves — spelling out the initials SKY — was born, increasing the passenger list by one. Sky-born community. It also became a topic of interest for Shona who decided to focus on the subject for her dissertation while studying for a masters degree at London's Goldsmiths University. Or how many babies have been born on a plane?

And I didn't have an answer," she says. She also came into contact with Debs Lowther. Lowther gave birth to her son Jonathan, just four months before Shona was born, on a British Airways flight in remarkably similar circumstances while flying back to the UK from Malawi. Most airlines don't keep records of births so statistics are hard to come by, but Shona's story is rare as airlines have rules safeguarding women and their babies.

Still, it was clear that her second child was planning an early arrival. Debbie fought the contractions at first, hoping to reach Europe and a hospital, but it soon became clear that her baby would touch down before the plane did.

The crew took care of Claire, while a Dutch doctor, Wym Bakker, en route home from providing maternity care in Ghana, took charge of the birth. The flight was just off the coast of the U. Shona is one of the almost 50 people worldwide known as skyborns—impromptu deliveries who increase the passenger manifest, mid-flight.

When tasked with creating a digital journalism project as a student, Shona created a website and community for skyborns, and researched the history of births like hers. For more TPG news delivered each morning to your inbox, sign up for our daily newsletter. Flight attendants are not trained to deliver babies so if a woman goes into labor, the first step is usually to consult with the passengers in hopes that there are medical professionals on board. The crew examines each instance on a case-by-case basis to determine if an emergency landing is necessary or if the birth can take place and the flight can continue as planned.

Or does the baby become a citizen of the country the plane happened to be flying over at the time of its birth? Other circumstances can also play a role. The first is that the baby is a citizen of the country that the aircraft is registered in, so if the aircraft is registered in Norway, the baby could be Norwegian. According to an NPR article , many nations have made broad claims about how much airspace they own above their respective borders — some say their territory extends 43 miles up while others say it extends 99 miles up.

The US, for example, grants citizenship to babies born in its airspace even if the newborn has foreign parents, so long as the birth takes place in US airspace or waters. Other countries do not — a baby born in British airspace, for example, is not granted UK citizenship. The plane was later diverted to Alaska, where the baby was then born in the US and therefore granted US citizenship.

The mother has since faced backlash in her home country because of her dishonesty when boarding the plane and what her motivations were for doing so in the first place. Of the children who were born in the air, very few are known to have received free flights for life.