A Ryanair flight was thrown into chaos on Thursday when it "gained an extra passenger" miles into the air.
The low-cost carrier had been taking flyers from Brussels to Castellon in Spain when one more traveller joined the cabin.
An expectant mother on board gave birth mid-flight, just as before the plane hurtled over the French city of Orleans.
With the aircraft not even halfway into its journey, it was forced to abandon course and make an emergency landing in Limoges, a few hundred miles south of Orleans.
The Ryanair flight was forced to land after the mid-air birth
GETTY
Air traffic tracking site FlightRadar24 said the infant was a baby girl.
"This flight from Brussels to Castellon gained an extra passenger today, as a passenger gave birth to a baby girl at 18,000 feet," it added.
Ryanair later confirmed to GB News that the flight diverted to Limoges because of the birth.
But the news prompted jabs at the budget airline on social media.
One commentator prodded: "Does the place of birth in the documents say 18,000 feet somewhere above France?"
Another added: "Did Ryanair charge her for an extra seat?"
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With the aircraft not even halfway into its journey, it was forced to abandon course and make an emergency landing in Limoges
FLIGHTRADAR24
This is not the first time a child has been born on board a plane - last spring, a Wizz Air flight from Jordan to London was forced to divert to southern Italy when a passenger went into labour.
Fortunately, UK doctor Hassan Khan and his friends, all of which were doctors too, were on board.
"Out of all of the flights that this could have possibly happened on, I would say this was a relatively good one given the number of medical staff available," Dr Khan told Sky News.
Last spring, a Wizz Air flight from Jordan to London was forced to divert to southern Italy when a passenger went into labour
MID AND SOUTH ESSEX HOSPITALS TRUST
The mother's water had broken and "she was about to deliver soon", he said, adding that "she didn't speak a word of English".
The junior doctor, who practises in Essex, told the Southend Echo: "I was so fixated on managing the situation, I almost forgot we were on an aircraft, and it felt surreal to help deliver a baby safely with more than two hundred unknown passengers and flight crew around."
A 2019 study published in the International Society of Travel Medicine said there were just 74 infants born on commercial flights between 1929 and 2018 - 71 of whom survived the delivery.
