Erkan Geldi made his first entrance in the world while on a flight and now he makes his living as a flight attendant.
Geldi’s mother had boarded a Turkish Airlines flight from Izmir, Turkey to Frankfurt in 1990. Geldi told USA Today that mother was flying for the first time.
His mother went into labor during descent. Attendants asked if there was help on board. A newly graduated gynecologist volunteered to help with labor. The mother named the boy Erkan after the pilot who has since retired.
“My father worked in Germany, and we took a plane twice a year to visit. I wondered every time I saw a plane what it must be like to work there,” Geldi said. “Maybe it’s because of my birth, maybe not. But it’s clear that I love planes.”
Geldi began work as a flight attendant last year. When hiring agents asked why he wanted to work for an airline, he said:
I picked this occupation. I replied that actually the occupation chose me! When my father’s friends came to visit, they would always say, ‘Hello, little pilot!’
Airlines differ in their rules, but generally women are allowed to fly without talking to the airline until they are past 28 weeks of pregnancy. Between 28 to 36 weeks, many airlines require a doctor’s letter that medically clears the woman to fly. Women with multiple pregnancies are often not allowed to fly after 32 weeks of pregnancy.
Some airlines have no specific prohibition for pregnant women to fly, such as Southwest and Delta, although women are advised to consult with their doctors.
Women going into labor is usually enough cause for a flight diversion, which happened in March when a Philadelphia woman, 38, went into labor on an American flight bound for Atlanta.
Births in the air are extremely rare, but do happen. Most recently, a Canadian woman, Ada Guan, gave birth over the Pacific Ocean on an Air Canada flight to Japan. The birth coincided with Mother’s Day (May 15) this year. Husband Wesley Branch told CNN she didn’t know she was pregnant. Branch said that a pregnancy test was negative and a visit to a doctor hadn’t uncovered the pregnancy.
There have been two other births aboard a Turkish Airlines plane in the past few decades, but Geldi said that he is the only one born in the air.
