Baby Born During Southwest Airlines Flight

Luckily, a doctor and nurse were also on board.

ByABC News
December 9, 2014, 1:56 PM

— -- A baby born on a plane mid-flight joined a very different kind of mile high club.

Southwest Airlines Flight 623 bound for Phoenix was diverted shortly after taking off from San Francisco on Tuesday when a pregnant passenger went into labor, the airline confirmed to ABC News.

But before the plane could make an emergency landing in Los Angeles, the baby was born with the help of a doctor and nurse who were on board.

"Never thought I'd experience that, yeah, everyone was saying the same thing. It was just amazing that that happened on a plane," pasenger Ely Alexander told ABC station KABC-TV in Los Angeles.

"No one freaked out, no, it was all very calm," Alexander said. "It was really amazing how calm it was and how many people came to help."

A team of medics met the plane when it did land in Los Angeles.

The airline did not make public the baby's gender.

The other 111 passengers on board flight 623 boarded another flight to Phoenix.

The identity of the mother has not yet been released, but she was transported to a hospital.

This isn't the first time a baby was born mid-air on a Southwest Airlines flight.

In 2009 a passenger gave birth to a baby boy while on a flight from Chicago to Salt Lake City.

Babies born on flights are usually given a birth certificate from the state in which their plane lands.