LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Southwest Airlines flight landed in Los Angeles with one more passenger than when it took off. Southwest Airlines Flight 623 bound for Phoenix was diverted shortly after taking off from San Francisco on Tuesday when a pregnant passenger went into labor, the airline confirmed to ABC News. Paramedics boarded the aircraft and the mother and newborn, whose names have not been released, were taken to a hospital in good condition, Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Erik Scott said. But before the plane could make an emergency landing in Los Angeles, the baby was born with the help of a doctor and nurse who were on board.
– A baby born yesterday probably has more frequent-flier miles than any other newborn alive. A Southwest Airlines flight bound for Phoenix from San Francisco made an emergency landing in LA not long after takeoff yesterday when a woman on board the plane went into labor and produced an addition to the passenger manifest, the AP reports. A Southwest spokeswoman says the flight crew, as well as a nurse and doctor on the flight, helped usher in the new neonatal nomad, and the unidentified mom and baby were whisked off to the hospital by paramedics when the plane landed and were said to be in good condition. If all follows the usual protocol, the baby will likely be given a birth certificate from California, the state in which the plane landed, ABC News reports. It was a somewhat confusing moment for some of the passengers. "All of a sudden I heard a baby cry like a gurgling sound, like a baby that had too much milk or whatever, and I'm like, 'There's no babies on this flight,'" a passenger who had been seated near the mother tells the AP. Another passenger experienced relief upon finding out what the in-air request for a doctor was all about: "The captain announced congratulations for the arrival of this new baby boy, so we all started applauding. … It was confusing because we thought someone was going to die, not be born." The other 111 passengers were redirected onto another plane to Phoenix, and the birthing plane was removed from service for cleaning. (Click to read about how a baby born to a Ugandan woman who resides in the US ended up a Canadian citizen after being born on a flight from Amsterdam to Boston.)