(Image Source: The San Francisco Examiner)
BY JENNIFER LONG
You're watching multisource video news analysis from Newsy.
An international flight from the Philippines landed in San Francisco with a little extra baggage. Good Morning America explains.
Anchor: “A woman gave birth at 35,000 feet, stunning the crew and passengers -- certainly, her roommates. Luckily, there were three nurses on board to help with the delivery, and mom and baby are all on solid footing and doing just fine.”
So how’d this happen? Aida Alamillo and her family had just received their visas to move to the US and were on their way to Boston from the Philippines. Mom’s due date was one week away, but she tells KNTV her doctor gave her permission to fly.
Alamillo: “That’s why they allowed me to travel because I didn’t feel anything. I had no complication. I’m very fine.”
Reporter: “She says her doctor cleared her for the 14 hour flight and unlike many other airlines she said Philippines Airlines never asked any questions.
But the anchors at Fox and Friends say there’s no way an expecting mother should be flying overseas a week away from her due date. And that raises the question, was this planned?
Gretchen Carlson: “I wonder if she took that flight on purpose?”
Brian Kilmeade: “Well here’s the deal. If the child is born over the open ocean, it’s generally considered a citizen of that country where the parent has legal citizenship in. If the baby is born in American airspace, it’s a US Citizen. But this is international waters.”
Alamillo’s sister lives in Massachusetts, and she told WFXT...
“Aida was planning on immigrating to Massachusetts with her three children and was hoping to have her fourth child here so it would automatically and immediately become a United States citizen.”
Although things may not have worked out exactly according to plan, Alamillo did say the delivery was quick and easy.
Alamillo: “It’s like 15 minutes. (Laughs)
Officials have yet to decide whether or not the baby, named Kevin, will be a United States citizen.
Transcript by Newsy.
