Lots of people name their children after their place of birth, but not many of those people can say that location was 24,000 feet in the sky.
Tami Fabiola was born on Valentine’s Day onboard a Transportes Aereos Militares (TAM) flight. The military carrier is part of the Bolivian Air Force, Fuerza Aerea Boliviana. Her parents named her Tami in honor of the airline. The plane was on its way from Cochabamba to La Paz, Bolivia when Tami’s mother went into labor. The plane was already beginning the landing process when labor began. It was given priority to land at El Alto International Airport, where Tami and her mom were transferred to an ambulance.
The little girl was born two weeks short of full term. Like most airlines, TAM does not allow women to fly during their third trimester. But TAM officials didn’t know the mother was pregnant when she boarded because of her bulky clothing. Tami’s lucky that they missed her mother’s baby-bump. According to Lieutenant Colonel Jerry Holters, a spokesman for the military and airline, told the Latin American Herald Tribune that “the girl will receive free tickets to travel around the country until she is 21…. And she will receive a scholarship to study at the Educational Unit of the FAB.”
Tami is far from the first mid-air birth. This past December a Southwest Airlines crew helped a baby they nicknamed “Peanut” into the world on a Chicago-Salt Lake flight. A few months before that, in October, a woman went into labor on AirAsia, 11-weeks early. In celebration of her health mid-air delivery, she and her baby were granted free flights for life by the airline.
Air travel is usually safe for pregnant mothers, though some airlines require a doctor’s note certifying mom fit to fly. First trimester flight is actually the most dangerous, as it increases risk of miscarriage and morning sickness.
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