On Jan. 12, a passenger flying on an Armavia Airlines jet gave birth during a flight between Siberia, Russia and Yerevan, Armenia. This news comes from the Associated Press (AP) via Yahoo who says that the baby was born about two hours before landing at the intended destination which was Zvartnots International Airport.
The baby, a girl, was consequently named after the flight attendant Asmik Gevondyan who took care of the mother, 31-year-old passenger Armina Babayan, both before and during delivery.
Apparently, Asmik noticed that Armina was in labor and went about preparing for the birth that was obviously going to take place during the flight, a flight that traditionally takes about five or more hours to complete.
In the end, the entire crew on board the long-distance Armavia Airlines aircraft took part in the delivery of the passenger who claimed to be six-and-a-half months pregnant during check-in.
Because baby Asmik was born in flight, and therefore in international air space, the question of birth place becomes complicated. According to the Yahoo site called Answers, The United Nations considers a child that first saw life during flight to have been born in the airplane's registered country.
However, some countries consider the city where the child first disembarked (in this case, Yerevan) as the place of birth, and to the airplane's registered country (in this case, Armenia) as the place of citizenship.
That said, these topics of citizenship and birthplace are not at all the same. Yahoo's top answer to the question of place of birth for a baby born on a flight is that this quandary "is typically a larger issue and may require some paperwork, while writing a child's birthplace on a birth certificate is often a less legally significant consideration."
Whatever the place of birth little Asmik ultimately claims and no matter what country's passport she ultimately carries, this tiny passenger will some day be telling the tale of how she was born in flight while traveling from Siberia to Armenia. Now that's a good one to share with the grandchildren.
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