- A woman gave birth to a healthy baby boy on board a nearly 12-hour transatlantic flight on Sunday.
- A United Airlines spokesperson said medical professionals on board helped safely deliver the child.
- "The delivery was uneventful other than being at 30,000 feet," a United representative told ABC News.
United Flight 997 was halfway across the Atlantic Ocean on Sunday when the unexected happened.
Still thousands of miles from the plane's Washington Dulles destination, a passenger went into labor.
The pregnant woman was expected to give birth in late February, according to BBC Pidgin, but midway through the 11-hour flight from Accra, Ghana, to Washington, DC, she began having contractions.
Thanks to medical professionals on board, the unexpected delivery went smoothly and the baby was born healthy.
According to the outlet, a Ghanaian physician who practices medicine in the US, aided by a former nurse turned flight attendant created a maternity ward in the plane's business class section and helped the woman deliver a newborn son.
"Our crew was amazing – they acted quickly, assisted the medical professionals onboard, and ensured everyone stayed safe throughout the flight," a spokesperson for United Airlines told Insider.
—Zhikay Ikejunior (@zhikayikejunior) January 31, 2022
"And we were especially thrilled to see the plane land with one extra, especially beautiful, customer onboard," the spokesperson added.
Paramedics met the plane upon arrival on Sunday morning, at which point the mother and her child were taken to a local hospital.
A representative for the airline told WUSA that a United employee greeted the new mother with a balloon and congratulations card that said, "On behalf of the United team at Washington Dulles, congratulations on your baby boy!"
On Monday, the airline said both mother and child are doing well.
"The delivery was uneventful other than being at 30,000 feet," a United representative told ABC News.
Last May, a Delta flight made headlines after a woman gave birth en-route to Hawaii. And in October, another woman went into labor mid-air, delivering a son two weeks before her due date on a flight flying from Istanbul to Chicago.
Insider's Andrea Michelson previously spoke with flight attendants about their extensive training and how they are prepared to respond to possible emergencies, including births.