Afghan Refugee Gives Birth On Evacuation Flight To The UK At 30,000 Feet

An Afghan refugee has given birth at 30,000 feet during an evacuation flight to the UK.

Soman Noori was hoping to escape the Taliban and start a new life for herself and her family in Birmingham.

She boarded a flight from Dubai to Britain last week with her husband and two children after flying from Kabul.

Turkish Airlines says she went into labour during the flight and there were no doctors on board, meaning flight attendants were forced to help deliver the baby.

The plane landed in Kuwait as a precaution, however when mum and bub were fine the aircraft carried on to Birmingham and landed close to midday on Saturday (August 28).

The baby has since been called Havva, which translates to Eve in English.

An unidentified flight attendant said: "There are various trainings we receive, one of which is childbirth. On our flight today, we had a passenger who declared that she was pregnant and that she was in pain.

"Necessary intervention was made by my entire team. As a result, we had a healthy and beautiful birth and we had a beautiful baby."

The UK's the Ministry of Defence said they have finished all their civilian evacuation flights from Kabul and will now only be evacuating UK diplomatic and military personnel.

Chief of the defence staff, General Sir Nick Carter, said it was 'heartbreaking' they couldn't rescue more people.

He told Radio 4's Today programme: "[The evacuation] has gone as well as it could do in the circumstances... but we haven't been able to bring everybody out and that has been heartbreaking, and there have been some very challenging judgements that have had to be made on the ground."

The British ambassador to Afghanistan, Sir Laurie Bristow, added they will 'continue to do everything we can to help them'.

Soman's birth onboard a rescue flight isn't the only one to happen during the mission to evacuate people from Afghanistan.

An Afghan woman gave birth on a US Air Force C-17 Globemaster evacuation flight after going into labour mid-air.

The new mother was helped off the plane moments after delivering her child as they landed at Ramstein Air Base in Germany on August 21.

In a series of tweets, the Air Mobility Command explained: "During a flight from an Intermediate Staging Base in the Middle East, the mother went into labor and began having complications.

"The aircraft commander decided to descend in altitude to increase air pressure in the aircraft, which helped stabilize and save the mother's life.

"Upon landing, Airmen from the 86th MDG came aboard and delivered the child in the cargo bay of the aircraft.

"The baby girl and mother were transported to a nearby medical facility and are in good condition."

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: News

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie is a Trending Journalist at LADbible. His first job was as a newsreader and journalist at the award winning Sydney radio station, Macquarie Radio. He was solely responsible for the content broadcast on multiple stations across Australia when the MH17, Germanwings and AirAsia disasters unfolded. Stewart has covered the conflict in Syria for LADbible, interviewing a doctor on the front line, and has contributed to the hugely successful UOKM8 campaign.

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