Alaska Mom Gives Birth on a Plane and Names Child Accordingly

One mom from Alaska gave birth to her son while on a flight and chose to name her son Sky to commemorate the unique birth story.

Sky Airon Hicks was born up in the sky around 1 a.m on August 5. Though his mom, Chrystal Hicks of Glennallen, typically drove to Anchorage ahead of the birth, this fourth pregnancy felt different. When she started having painful contractions at 35 weeks pregnant, she got on a plane to be medevaced to a hospital in Anchorage, but her water broke just a few minutes into the flight. Sky was born 20 minutes later.

“I was just having contractions and it wouldn’t stop, and it kept getting stronger and they thought we were going to make it. But we obviously didn’t make it very far,” Hicks told KTUU-TV. “It was shocking, it was really weird at first, I didn’t know what to think. But everybody kept talking about the baby on the plane.”

Hicks and Sky made it to the hospital safely, but Sky weighed 5 pounds and 10 ounces, having been born a month earlier, and was placed on a breathing machine. The family told the outlet they hope he’ll be discharged in the next week.

While filling out her son’s birth certificate, Hicks didn’t know what to put. “I just put Anchorage,” Hicks said. “I didn’t want to put on a plane or in the sky.”

Sky is reportedly already famous. “I’m just so proud to say I’ve got a nephew that’s already famous,” Hick’s sister, Genevie Goodlataw, told KTUU-TV, adding, ““He’s got a lot of hair and he’s just so gorgeous and precious. Me and his mom are just loving him up as much as we can and we can’t wait to bring him home.”

Hicks has three older kids, aged 3, 9 and 11. The mom believes that Sky’s birth story will be one that will follow him throughout his life. “I think when he’s older, he might get embarrassed about it but I think it’s funny now,” Hicks said. “I think even when he graduates he’ll be known as baby born on a plane.”