Woman gives birth on evacuation flight from Afghanistan

The birth was not without complications, writes aviation service Air Mobility Command on Twitter. “So the pilot decided to fly a little lower to increase the air pressure in the plane. This allowed the woman to stabilize and she stayed alive.”

The plane eventually landed at Ramstein Military Air Base in Germany, an air base owned by the US Air Force. The mother and daughter were taken to a nearby hospital and are in good health.

The woman was evacuated with members of her family from the airport in Kabul, the Afghan capital. The US airlift is also facing logistical challenges. The Ramstein base is therefore now used for evacuations because the bases in the Persian Gulf have become very crowded. The Ramstein base in the south of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate should temporarily accommodate 7,500 evacuees.

The Dutch Ministry of Defense also has an airlift for evacuation flights from the Afghan capital Kabul. People are taken from Afghanistan to a safe country in the region and from there the evacuees go to the Netherlands with a bigger plane. Depending on the schedule, there will be a return flight to a safe airport several times a day.

Since the Taliban seized power in Kabul last Sunday, chaos has reigned around the international airport in the Afghan capital, now under American control.