Jet Airways flight 9W 569 from Dammam, Saudi Arabia to Kochi, India landed due to a medical emergency in Mumbai when a woman on board went prematurely into labor. This was the first baby to be born on a flight of the airline, and the airline rewarded the baby with free tickets for life.
While the Boeing 737 was still over the Arabian Sea, a cabin announcement for the requirement of the services of a doctor was made when one of the 162 passengers went into premature labor. While there was no doctor available in-flight, a female nurse, Wilson, who was traveling to Kerela, along with members of the cabin crew delivered the baby before the plane landed in Mumbai for the medical emergency.
After the flight landed in Mumbai, both the mother and the baby were rushed to a hospital where both their conditions were declared safe. The airline released a statement in which it told that it was the first baby to be born aboard a Jet Airways flight and rewarded the baby with free tickets for life on Jet Airways.
In the last year, more than five infants were born on commercial flights but none of them has been awarded so generously as the baby on Jet Airways. The last baby to be awarded free tickets for life was born on a two-hour flight from Penang to Kuching on an AirAsia in 2009. Virgin Atlantic awarded a baby-free flight till the age of 21 while Cebu Pacific Air flight from Dubai to Manila was awarded one million frequent flier miles.
Every baby born on board a flight did not receive a payday. Another baby born on a British Airways flight, Shona Owen in 1990, was given complimentary first-class tickets for her 18th birthday. Another baby born on Turkish Airlines in April was given nothing.
