Passengers aboard a Frontier Airlines flight from Denver, Colorado, to Orlando, Florida, had to practice a bit of patience in-flight, as one tiny passenger was simply unable to wait.
According to a Facebook post put out by Frontier Airlines, a flight crew onboard a jetliner bound for Orlando International Airport had their work cut out for them. When the First Officer landed the plane in Florida, he did so at a different airport than what was planned, and there was a passenger onboard whose name wasn’t on the original flight‘s passenger record.
As they say in aviation lingo, it was an “unlikely event,” as an expectant mother went into labor unexpectedly mid-flight. But where panic could have ensued, calm and order prevailed.
Flight attendant Diana Giraldo immediately and calmly sprang into action, as if she were a veteran obstetrician–but one who’d taken to the skies to deliver babies. Giraldo assisted the expectant mom to the back lavatory inside the aircraft and proceeded to help deliver her baby, a little girl.
While members of the crew, led by Diana Giraldo tended to their newly assigned obstetric duties, Captain Chris Nye handed flying duties over to his First Officer so he could work to coordinate the plane‘s diversion to Pensacola Airport.
“The whole crew really did a great job,” Nye said. “Dispatch did a great job as well by suggesting Pensacola International Airport and getting a gate and paramedics ready for us. This was a job well done, and I was happy to see everyone working together to successfully deliver a newborn on an aircraft.”
When the plane landed at Pensacola International Airport, paramedics were awaiting the arrival of the new mother and her infant daughter. Upon transferring both mom and baby to the care of paramedics on the ground, Captain Chris Nye and his crew readied passengers to continue the scheduled flight with service to Orlando, Florida via Orlando International Airport, some 380 air miles away.
Captain Nye noted that the aircraft on which the baby was delivered, N717FR, is Frontier’s “Lily and Luna” plane, also referred to as the “mother and daughter plane.” The tail of the plane features an image of a wolf mother and her pup.
Everyone on board and on the ground was delighted that mom and baby were doing well. But something tells us that if there were kids or kids at heart on board with Park Pass Reservations at the Walt Disney World Resort today, they were even happier when their plane took off from the Pensacola airport and then landed in Orlando.
Construction of the Walter Elias Disney International Airport at Disney World just can’t happen fast enough!