Airline passenger news and views

A baby was born last week on an Iberia flight from Malabo in Equatorial Guinea to Madrid. This unlikely event raises some questions that make us wonder.

Should pregnant women be allowed to fly?

British Airways requests that passengers travelling beyond their seventh month of pregnancy bring along a letter from their medical professional stating that the pregnancy is free from complications, and the expected due date. It should also state that the pregnant passenger is fit to travel.

Ryanair warns that pregnant women within their last four weeks of pregnancy, or within their last eight weeks when carrying multiples, are not allowed to board flights under any circumstances.

What happens when a woman goes into labour mid flight?

Planes do not have the sophisticated medical equipment needed for labour emergencies and during international flights the nearest airport can be hours away. It is true that doctors, nurses and other health professionals are frequently aboard as passengers, but one cannot always rely on that possibility.

In the case of the Iberia flight, luckily there was a midwife onboard, a GP and a paediatrician, who assisted the woman, backed up by the cabin crew.

The physicians determined that there was no need to alter the route, and the flight landed in Madrid where an ambulance was waiting to take the mother and newborn to hospital.

What about the citizenship of the baby?

This a delicate question since different countries apply different criteria. Conflicts of laws still exist, in particular between North and South American states, which typically adhere to the jus soli (right of soil) principle, and the laws of European states, which usually apply the jus sanguinis (right of blood) norm.

A conflict then, between thinking where the baby is born (the plane is considered part of the country where it has been registered) and  the the social policy by which citizenship is not determined by place of birth, but by the citizenship of the parents.

The baby was considered Spanish in the case of the Iberia flight, since the mother had that citizenship and the aircraft that nationality.

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