Afghan woman goes into labour on evacuation flight to Germany, delivers baby girl

An Afghan fleeing the Taliban government went into labour on board a US military flight heading for Germany on Saturday.

But she delivered a baby girl just after touching down at Ramstein Air Base in Germany.

In a CNN report quoting tweet threads on Sunday, the US Air Mobility Command said the woman went into labor aboard a C-17 transport aircraft during the second leg of her journey fleeing the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.

The flight was from a staging base in the Middle East to the large US air base in Germany.

The mother began to have complications while the aircraft was at its flight altitude, typically above 28,000 feet (8,534 meters), due to the lower air pressure in the plane.

“The aircraft commander decided to descend in altitude to increase air pressure in the aircraft, which helped stabilize and save the mother’s life,” said the tweet, which was sent from the US Air Mobility Command’s official account.

On touchdown, personnel from the Air Force’s 86th Medical Group assisted in the delivery of the baby in the C-17’s cargo bay, the tweet said.

Mother and baby were then transported to a nearby medical facility where they are in good condition.

Olson said he expects evacuees to stay for between 48 and 72 hours at the base.

The US agreement with Germany states they should not stay for more than 10 days, he added.