Early arrival: Phoenix woman gives birth to boy on flight
PHOENIX — Flight attendants huddled around Cristina Penton, handing her wet cloths to keep her cool. One massaged her shoulders, and another told her to stay calm — everything would be OK.
Penton knew something was wrong within 15 minutes of takeoff, when the pregnant mother began to have contractions as often as every five minutes. Once her water broke, she knew her baby boy was going to be born before the plane reached the gates.
“He did what he wanted,” she said at a news conference. “We were just along for the ride.”
Penton gave birth Saturday night on a Spirit Airlines flight that took a detour to New Orleans when she went into labour. She was 36 weeks pregnant when she boarded the flight from Fort Lauderdale on her way to her home in the Phoenix area with her two other children.