Canadian mom gives birth on flight to Japan

A doctor on the Air Canada jet assisted with the birth, after the mother went into labour over the Pacific Ocean. “I couldn’t imagine,” said the surprised dad, on arrival in Tokyo. “It turned out to be a beautiful baby girl.”

An Air Canada flight to Japan landed with an extra passenger on-board, after a Canadian woman gave birth to a baby girl over the Pacific Ocean on Sunday.

The 23-year-old woman went into labour during a flight from Calgary to Tokyo, and gave birth before the plane set down at Narita International Airport, according to The Japan Times.


The mother was seen emerging from the plane in a wheelchair, followed by the father, who was holding the newborn girl, whom the couple named Chloe.

A doctor on board helped deliver the baby, The Japan Times reported.

“I couldn’t imagine. This happened completely unexpectedly,” the father, who remains unnamed, told Japanese TV. “It turned out to be a beautiful baby girl,” he added.

Air Canada said on Twitter that it wished the mother and daughter well “as they arrived in Tokyo safe and sound” on flight AC009.

Source indicates that Air Canada allows women with normal pregnancies and no history of going into premature labour to fly up to their 36th week.

This isn’t the first time a baby has been born mid-flight.

Last December, a boy was born on a flight between San Francisco and Phoenix, while a flight from Miami to Doha made an emergency landing in Newfoundland in March after a woman unexpectedly gave birth on-board.