A Canadian couple was flying to Japan for their vacation but what happened on board the flight there will be changing all their plans. They became parents.
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When Air Canada flight 009 left Calgary for Tokyo...It had 201 passengers. When it arrived at Narita Airport nearly 10 hours later....there were 202, with the arrival of a baby girl...Chloe, delivered by a physician who just happened to be on the flight.
Those on the plane were astonished..and excited.
Perhaps most surprised-- the Canadian couple. First time parents on a vacation.
First time grandmother Sandra Branch says her son Wes didn't know his girlfriend Ada Guan was even pregnant.
Branch says when the young woman started feeling pain...She was upgraded--to business class, then had the baby about two hours before landing.
New father, Wesley Branch, recalled the strange event: "So basically, she was going through contractions in first class, really bad contraction. I was beside her the hold time holding her hand. She said, 'Babe, something just fell out of me, can you check?' And I checked, and I seen this little baby head, I was shocked. and I passed out. And I got back up, and I said, 'We have a kid. I can't believe we have a kid."
Air Canada allows women with no history of early labor to fly within the first 36 weeks of pregnancy, while a full term baby is 40 weeks. But these young parents insist they had no idea there even was a pregnancy. It can happen, but Dr. Doug Wilson says it is rare, "it would be unusual certainly not unheard of but unusual for a woman of normal stature to be able to not recognize that she is pregnant with an increasing uterine growth."
Citizenship rules for Canada make Chloe's case a little tricky. All babies born in Canadian airspace are automatically granted citizenship. However, if Canadian officials determine she was born over international waters her parents will have to apply for Canadian citizenship. In that case the determining factor would become her parents and the registry of the Air Canada aircraft.
The couple hopes to bring baby Chloe home to Canada as soon as possible.
Right now, the family is staying with relatives near Narita, Japan, and has been offered help from the Canadian embassy with a stroller and other baby gear.