Oh Gosh....this is so damn cool~~~

Baby arrives prematurely on AirAsia flight to Kuching

2009/10/22

Regina Lee

PUTRAJAYA: A baby boy arrived unexpectedly during an AirAsia flight to Kuching.

Liew Siaw Hsia, a 31-year-old waitress from Taiping, took the flight from Penang last night when she was just 27 weeks pregnant, a week shy of the recommended travel ban for pregnant mothers.

When she boarded the flight, she said that there was already some discomfort.

But 20 minutes into the journey, she started feeling contractions and the flight crew immediately made an emergency diversion to Kuala Lumpur.

"When I started feeling a lot of pain, I was still too nervous to ask for assistance. It was when I couldn't take it anymore that I asked the passenger beside me for help," said Liew.

She said that the flight attendants tried to calm her down and to hold on from giving birth, but the pain was too unbearable.

"They immediately asked the other passengers sitting around me to move elsewhere, and asked for a doctor on the PA system," she said.

On the flight was Dr Ronald Tang, another passenger, who quickly volunteered his services to the nervous mother while the cabin crew held her hand throughout the entire ordeal.

The baby was safely delivered in mid-air when flight AK 6506 was being re-routed to Kuala Lumpur.

As soon as the aircraft landed, a waiting ambulance and paramedics whisked the baby and mother to the Putrajaya Hospital here.

AirAsia director of operations Moses Devanayagam visited the mother and child yesterday to congratulate them, and to also present them both with free flights for life.

"I would like to congratulate Liew and wish her all the best of luck.

"Delivering a baby at 2,000 feet is indeed a very rare experience, and certainly she will cherish the moment forever," he said.

Flight AK5606 was on its way to Kuching but had to be re-routed to the Low Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT) in Sepang when a pregnant passenger told crew members she was in labour pains.

Liew Siaw Hsia, 31, gave birth through the normal delivery to a premature but healthy boy, who became the first born in an AirAsia aircraft.

Edd Razhe, the personal assistant to the AirAsia chairman, said when the pilot was informed of the emergency, he contacted the control tower requesting a re-route to LCCT.

"The ambulance was already at the airport to take the woman and her baby to Putrajaya Hospital," he said when contacted here, today.

Edd said although it was an emergency, situation in the aircraft was normal and under control.

AirAsia will provide a lifetime of free flights to both Liew and her son to all destinations. - BERNAMA