Saudia - giving birth on SV21
 

Saudia #SV21 to New York declared an emergency due to woman giving birth on board | AIRLIVE.net

UPDATE 09:45 UTC Saudia #SV21 has medical emergency on board: woman giving birth.
UPDATE 09:43 UTC Saudia #SV21 is dumping fuel.
UPDATE 09:40 UTC Saudia #SV21 Boeing 777-300 to JFK is holding 33,000ft to London Heathrow.
UPDATE 09:35 UTC Saudia flight #SV21 to New York (JFK) is diverting.


(landed in LHR by now).


Hang on.. isn't boarding rejected some weeks/months before projected labour?

6 weeks is the normal limit, and a premature birth could easily be that early. That is probably why it is being treated as an emergency.

4 Ambulances on stand to deliver one Baby Girl !!!

why all the way back to LHR.. ?? Belfast, Dublin, Glasgow, Manchester, Birmingham... even SNN would all be closer.. !!

Crew familiar with LHR.
Saudia handling available.
Long r/w for max ldg mass.

seems to be a bit of a contradiction to me, an emergency situation and by-passing all these closer alternatives, all of which regularly handle 777's.as far as familiarity is concerned I think anyone who is familiar with LHR procedures could use any of the others with their eyes closed - nearly !
so... it must be Saudi handling.... !


thanks for your reply.

Some carriers only train crews to operate to a set of airports. Yes sounds ridiculous but that is the reality. However I do not know if Saudia is 1 of those carriers.

Time taken to dump fuel to safe landing weight matched time to LHR so no quicker and safer destination?

Doesn't mean much when the lady is wearing Arabian peninsula-type dress. I once checked in and then boarded a lady, burkha and all, for a GF BAC 1-11 flight from Dubai to Abu Dhabi; She looked just like all the other well-swaddled ladies as she went by. Her large and healthy full-term baby was delivered in the galley, without difficulty, about 15 minutes later, en-route.

(Headline next day in the Gulf News (c. 1975/6) "GULF AIR - AN EARLY ARRIVAL AT LAST")

I'm guessing that smoke in the cockpit and a baby in the cabin may not be quite the same level of emergency.

Who?

Just to add to Basils list...

1. Additional Crew available
2. Maintenance Facilities and Support
3. Ground Staff Infrastructure and support
4. Catering facilities and contracts
5. Contracted Fuel suppliers
6. Better social welfare payments in the UK compared to Ireland :)

Just a by-the-way I am sure we all hope mother and baby are well, and we wish the infant a long and happy life

They held at 30000 feet for quite a while so no problem to get down earlier. Manchester is a Saudia online station so they should be familiar.
Maybe the biggest and most expensive private hospitals are in London!

It was 'only' a medical emergency. Although how much of an emergency it was would be debatable. Of course there is no way the flight could continue to NYC with a mother who had just given birth, but thinking sensibly, Saudia do fly to LHR, it would be the best airport to go to if the flight was eventually cancelled as they have plenty of ground staff to reroute passengers and sort out accommodation for them and crew. This would be a consideration for the company if they had time to act and plan. Dumping a 777 full of people into a place where the airline and air crew have no infrastructure in place would make the situation much more difficult.

If it had been a situation where the aircraft or the life of someone onboard was in serious danger then an immediate landing at the nearest suitable airport would most certainly have been the course of action, however I imagine this was a somewhat controlled situation with at least someone on board, even if not the crew, being able to deliver a baby safely and keep an eye on the health of the mother and child until landing.

Safe deliveries, like safe landings, are only so in retrospect. Emergencies may crop up without warning at any stage, and despite the Hollywood memes, plentiful boiling water and towels are likely to be insufficient.

Poor kid - free flights for life on Saudia ... ? :O

It's just as well that that urban myth isn't true.

They cost an arm and a leg, each, y'know.

Mebbe they were hoping for twins.

. . . . was that ' boarded' or 'bearded' . .. . . (thinks . . . Terry Jones i Life of Brian as Brian's mum . . .. maybe he did not have anything more than a midnight tan . .. . regardless "he's not the saviour .. he's just a naughty boy" is one of those immortal line's like 'Get your hand off it Darrell . ." (The Castle)
Off topic I know . . but what the heck Archie?

ON TOPIC . . . vaguely . . Recently waiting to catch a flight having just been to a country airport to have a look at a DH89a Dragon Rapide got into conversation about that to a total stranger having a durrie outside the terminal. When I happened to mention what I'd been doing he replied to my surprise that he knew of the type. how so ? . .it was on the 8th of August 1948 I know that for a fact because that was when my mum had me in a flying doctor Rapide over Menindee Lakes.