Woman Goes on Labor Mid-flight, Pilot Reroutes but Not to the Airport — Story of the Day

A pregnant woman went into labor while aboard a commercial airplane which forced the pilot to reroute the plane, but not to the airport.

Rose hated flying. She was a young woman who never had the opportunity to be on a plane for most of her life. Indeed she only started riding one when she started making visits from her town in Omaha to the city of Texas where her husband, Bill, worked as a miner.

The job brought in decent pay which was why he did it, but it separated them for a long long time. Bill was always gone all year long and he only got a break between Christmas and the New Year.

Rose went into labor on a plane during a flight back from visiting her husband | Source: Shutterstock

Rose went into labor on a plane during a flight back from visiting her husband | Source: Shutterstock

When she got tired of having to live without seeing her husband for long periods, she got Bill to agree to her making a monthly trip to see him.

Bill was initially not enthused about the idea, but in the end, the weekends he spent with her at the small apartment he stayed in were some of the best in their marriage.

It was one of those long romantic nights that brought about the pregnancy Rose now carried in her belly. Bill was aware of the child and could not wait to meet his youngster.

He had even promised to retire from mining and start a farm where they could grow crops to sell. Everyone knew farmers made a lot of profit in Omaha if they had the know-how, and Bill descended from a long line of farmers.

One day, Rose, heavy with child, was flying to Texas to see Bill even though he had asked her to remain in their Omaha home. Flying to him for their weekend getaways had become a habit and she could not stand not seeing him that weekend.

Rose got pregnant after several visits to Bill | Source: Pexels

Rose got pregnant after several visits to Bill | Source: Pexels

“You are nine months pregnant Rose,” he told her the last time they spoke.

“Oh, thank you for pointing that out, I had no idea my stomach started swelling nine months ago,” Rose replied drily.

“You shouldn’t be moving around so much now that you’re this close to giving birth but you want to make a whole journey? That’s absurd my dear.”

“I need to see you, be with you, I’ve missed you,” Rose cooed. She had let him convince her to remain at home for two months before she put her foot down.

“I know baby,” he said. “Hey, it’s September and I get to come home in December and never leave again, just be patient hon.”

Rose let him believe he had gotten through to her again but as soon as it was Friday, she got on a flight headed to Texas. She surprised him, and even though he claimed to be angered by it, they enjoyed their time together.

As soon as it was Friday, Rose got on a flight headed to Texas | Source: Pexels

As soon as it was Friday, Rose got on a flight headed to Texas | Source: Pexels

By Sunday evening, when Rose got on a plane bound for Omaha, she was glowing — she really did enjoy her husband’s refreshing company.

It wasn’t until the plane hit turbulence as it gained altitude that she was reminded how much she did not enjoy flying — it was nothing personal, she just preferred to have feet on solid ground where her fall to the ground, if it ever happened, would be a short distance.

Another rattle shook the plane and sent her overactive imagination into overdrive. She thought of everything from a hijacking to a plane crash and it got her stressed out. And it was as she mentally listed things that could go wrong that her water broke.

Caught up in her head, Rose wasn’t even aware that her water already broke. When she noticed the wetness, she turned red in the face, embarrassed thinking she could not control her bladder. It never occurred to her that her water had broken because it was not supposed to for another three weeks. Then the contractions began.

Rose got on a plane bound for Omaha by Sunday | Source: Pexels

Rose got on a plane bound for Omaha by Sunday | Source: Pexels

Rose started to scream, catching the attention of the flight attendant who rushed over to find out what was wrong. “I’m having a baby!!” Rose yelled.

The attendant quickly let the pilot know and he immediately connected with the nearest airport to request permission to land. Meanwhile, the flight attendant tried to calm Rose down by talking to her in between each contraction.

“Why are you traveling alone pregnant?” the kind-looking woman asked Rose.

“I was with my husband and I’m returning home,” Rose answered.

“He let you travel like this, how irresponsible!” the flight attendant exclaimed. “Okay, do you have family we can call? Besides your husband?”

“No, I’m an orphan,” Rose said. The flight attendant noticed that she had a temperature and was getting spent from enduring the contractions so she informed the pilot that the labor could get dangerous for Rose without a professional doctor to help.

The attendant informed the pilot and he immediately connected with the nearest airport to request permission to land | Source: Pexels

The attendant informed the pilot and he immediately connected with the nearest airport to request permission to land | Source: Pexels

A dispatcher informed the pilot, a man named Drew, that the nearest airport was not ready to receive their plane due to weather conditions.

Time was running out and in her feverish state, all Rose could manage was call out her husband’s name. That’s when Drew decided to turn the plane around to return to Texas.

“Keep her stable for thirty more minutes,” he told the attendant. Unfortunately, the weather in Texas was also terrible so their plane was denied access to land at the airport.

Luckily, Drew knew the area so he was aware of an abandoned airfield not far from the airport. The only problem was the runway was too short to land their large plane. Still, it was the closest town to where Rose could get medical help.

“Let’s land at the abandoned airstrip,” Drew told his co-pilot, a rookie who went by the name Stan.

“Sir with all due respect, landing there is against the rules,” Stan said.

“Sometimes to save a human being, you need to act according to your conscience, not the rules!” Drew replied.

Rose caught the attention of the flight attendant telling her she was having a baby.| Source: Pexels

Rose caught the attention of the flight attendant telling her she was having a baby.| Source: Pexels

He got the attendant to call Rose’s husband as they circled the abandoned airstrip getting ready to land. Drew knew every move had to be planned down to the last degree.

They circled once, twice, each time steadily getting closer to the ground. Meanwhile Rose was starting to lose consciousness because of her contractions.

The plane got closer to the ground and with a leap of faith, because there was no control tower to navigate their path, Drew took the plane down.

His co-pilot who was still a rookie was just one step away from panicking but he followed Drew’s lead and several tense minutes later, the aircraft touched the ground.

As they opened the hatch to get Rose out, an ambulance carrying EMTs and Rose’s husband sped through the clearing. It was followed by media vans and some civilians who feared there would be a crash and had come to help.

When the plane finally landed in the airfield, Bill and the ambulance crew were waiting | Source: Pexels

When the plane finally landed in the airfield, Bill and the ambulance crew were waiting | Source: Pexels

Bill carried his wife, pregnant as she was to the ambulance and they raced to the hospital. All the shocked man could do was pray that his wife, who did not look very good, would be alright.

At the hospital, the doctors got her a private room and a quick check of her vitals revealed that she was already too weak to push her baby out. It would have to be done via a C–section.

Bill was not allowed to remain in the room but after long moments of waiting, he was ushered in to see his new child and his recuperating wife. He could not believe how close he had gotten to losing them.

He quit his job that day so that when they returned to Omaha, it was to stay. Bill found out the name of the thoughtful pilot who took the risks to get his wife help and named their child after him. Rose was all in favour.

Still, she did not get on another airplane for years.

Rose was too weak to push in the hospital, so they did a C-section on her and their child was born | Source: Pexels

Rose was too weak to push in the hospital, so they did a C-section on her and their child was born | Source: Pexels

What did we learn from this story?

  • Human life is very precious. Drew was right when he decided to land the plane at the abandoned airstrip so as to save not just Rose’s life but the baby’s as well. That’s because human life is very precious and should be guarded well.
  • Overthinking is not your friend. Rose may have made the flight back to Omaha easily had she not started to overthink things because the plane shook from turbulence. However, once she got herself worked up enough, her body went into hyperdrive, and her water broke. It only goes to show that most times, overthinking does not help.

Share this story with your friends. It might brighten their day and inspire them.

If you enjoyed this story, you might like this one about a pregnant woman who went into labor in a traffic jam and couldn’t get access to an ambulance.

This account is inspired by our reader’s story but written by a professional writer. All names have been changed to protect identities and ensure privacy. Share your story with us; maybe it will change someone’s life. If you would like to share your story, please send it to

My Husband Said His Job Was Sending Him on a Work Conference — Then I Found Out He Was at a Wedding

When Lee’s husband claims he’s flying out for a work conference, she trusts him, until a Facebook photo shatters the illusion. No podium, no conference, just a wedding… and his ex. What follows isn’t a meltdown. It’s a reckoning. A calm, calculated confrontation that redefines trust and a quiet strength that shows exactly what betrayal costs.

When Jason told me he had to fly out of state for a last-minute marketing conference, I didn’t question it.

He’s in sales. Conferences happen. He even showed me the email with the company header, bullet-point itinerary, flight details.

A laptop opened to emails | Source: Midjourney

A laptop opened to emails | Source: Midjourney

“Lee, I’m going to be super busy, honey,” he’d said. “I’m probably going to be off the grid for most of the weekend. So, don’t worry about me! You take time off and enjoy yourself.”

“Yeah, I may do a spa weekend,” I said, thinking out loud.

I packed his garment bag myself. I made sure that the suit was pressed correctly. I slipped in his favorite tie, the blue one that I always said made his eyes look softer. He laughed and kissed my forehead.

A suit hanging in a cupboard | Source: Midjourney

A suit hanging in a cupboard | Source: Midjourney

“Don’t miss me too much,” he said.

I watched him walk through security and disappear. I trusted him the same way you trust gravity. I thought that if anything, we had enough trust in our marriage.

But then everything changed two days later. I was scrolling through Facebook on a lazy Sunday afternoon, mindlessly sipping tea and avoiding laundry, when I saw it.

A woman scrolling on her cellphone | Source: Midjourney

A woman scrolling on her cellphone | Source: Midjourney

My husband. My hard-working husband. Jason.

Not behind a podium. Not shaking hands at a conference.

Oh no, my husband was standing at the altar wearing the suit I had packed. He was grinning like he was the happiest man in the world. He had a glass of champagne in one hand and a little box of confetti in the other.

A smiling best man at a wedding | Source: Midjourney

A smiling best man at a wedding | Source: Midjourney

He was a best man in a wedding I hadn’t been told about.

In a photo that clearly I was never supposed to see. And standing next to him? Emily, his ex. The one that he swore was ancient history.

But they looked anything but history. They looked… familiar. Like they had been together all along.

“What the actual hell, Jason?” I said to the empty living room.

A smiling couple at a wedding | Source: Midjourney

A smiling couple at a wedding | Source: Midjourney

My fingers hovered over the screen like they didn’t belong to me. I zoomed in without meaning to, as if seeing his smile up close might make it make sense. But it didn’t.

He was happy. He was content and relaxed. Like someone who hadn’t lied to the woman waiting for him at home.

I felt the air go thin, like my lungs forgot how to take it in.

A woman sitting on a couch | Source: Midjourney

A woman sitting on a couch | Source: Midjourney

My first instinct wasn’t rage. It was grief. Like something sacred had quietly died in the background and no one had told me.

I sat there for a long time, frozen in that moment between disbelief and devastation, trying to convince myself there had to be an explanation.

But I knew better.

A close up of an upset woman sitting on a couch | Source: Midjourney

A close up of an upset woman sitting on a couch | Source: Midjourney

I’d packed that suit with love. I’d even slid one of my sleeping t-shirts into his suitcase so that he could smell me on his clothes. Instead, this man had worn that suit like a weapon, armed with the blue tie that I adored on him.

I didn’t scream though. But something inside me went silent. It was as though someone had plugged all my sound.

But that silence?

It was louder than any fury.

A blue tie on a bed | Source: Midjourney

A blue tie on a bed | Source: Midjourney

Jason came home on Monday evening. He smelled like hotel soap and something expensive that I couldn’t pinpoint but was sure I hadn’t packed. He looked tired. Like someone who spent the weekend performing, not working.

He kissed my cheek like nothing had happened. Like he hadn’t stood at an altar in front of strangers while I sat at home believing he was “off the grid.”

“Please tell me that you cooked?” he asked. “I missed your cooking, Lee! Hotel food is great and all, but home food? Yes, ma’am.”

A smiling man standing in a hallway | Source: Midjourney

A smiling man standing in a hallway | Source: Midjourney

I looked at him like he had grown antennae.

“Not yet,” I said. “But there is something we need to talk about before we make dinner.”

He followed me to the living room, where I had a clipboard on the coffee table.

“I’ve made a list of upcoming events that I’ll be attending without you. Let’s run through them together.”

A clipboard on a coffee table | Source: Midjourney

A clipboard on a coffee table | Source: Midjourney

“What?” Jason blinked, already off balance. “What do you mean? We always attend events together. Even if only one of us is invited, we always make a plan, Lee!”

Aah, Jason. You stupid fool, I thought. You’re digging your grave even deeper.

“Well, I suppose things change… life is expensive now. People can only afford a certain number of guests. This is just so we’re clear on our new standard for marital communication.”

A woman standing in a living room | Source: Midjourney

A woman standing in a living room | Source: Midjourney

He opened his mouth, confused but I handed him the clipboard anyway.

At the top, in clean, deliberate ink:

Lee’s Upcoming Itinerary

Thursday: Daniel’s art show. Opening night, downtown.

Saturday: Girls’ trip to Serenity Spa Resort (adults only, co-ed pool).

The interior of a spa | Source: Midjourney

The interior of a spa | Source: Midjourney

Next Week: Networking dinner at Bistro (attending solo, red dress ready).

Two Weeks: Chelsea’s birthday dinner.

He read the list in silence, his mouth pressed into a thin line.

A woman standing in a bistro wearing a red dress | Source: Midjourney

A woman standing in a bistro wearing a red dress | Source: Midjourney

I leaned against the doorframe, arms crossed.

“Daniel? Your ex-boyfriend?” he asked.

“Yeah,” I said. “Don’t worry. I won’t mention any of this until after it happens. You don’t need to know, right? Since that’s how we do things now, right?”

His head snapped up.

A woman standing in a doorway | Source: Midjourney

A woman standing in a doorway | Source: Midjourney

“Lee, come on. This isn’t the same. It was work…”

“Don’t lie,” I said simply. “Because you lied about it all. And your lie involved tuxedos and speeches and an ex-girlfriend in a bridesmaid dress?”

He opened his mouth but I kept going. My voice didn’t rise. It didn’t have to.

“I don’t know if you slept with her or anything, Jason. I really don’t. But I know you lied. You crafted a whole fake weekend. You made me think you were unreachable because you were working, when really, you just didn’t want to answer any of my calls in case she was nearby. Right?”

A smiling bridesmaid | Source: Midjourney

A smiling bridesmaid | Source: Midjourney

He stared at the clipboard like it had personally betrayed him.

“I… I messed up,” he said, his voice cracking around the edges.

That was it. Not “I’m sorry.” Not “It meant nothing.”

Just… I messed up.

“Yeah, you did,” I said.

And then I walked past him. Because when trust cracks like that, even forgiveness walks with a limp.

An upset man sitting on a couch | Source: Midjourney

An upset man sitting on a couch | Source: Midjourney

After that night, we didn’t speak much.

Not because we were giving each other the silent treatment… but because we didn’t know what words to use. Everything felt too big. Too sharp.

He hovered like a man on eggshells, trying to do things right without knowing what “right” looked like anymore. And I moved through the days on autopilot, brushing my teeth beside him, making dinner, folding his t-shirts with hands that weren’t sure what they were holding onto.

A woman busy in a kitchen | Source: Midjourney

A woman busy in a kitchen | Source: Midjourney

I wasn’t ready to leave. But I wasn’t ready to forgive him either.

Jason and I didn’t end our marriage.

So I did what I always did when I didn’t have the answer. I made a plan. I found a therapist and I made the appointment.

And when I told him he was coming with me, he didn’t argue. He just nodded. Like he knew he should’ve offered before I even had to ask.

A smiling therapist | Source: Midjourney

A smiling therapist | Source: Midjourney

Because when trust breaks, the first step isn’t forgiveness. It’s seeing if the pieces still fit.

We sat side by side on a faux-leather couch in a beige room with neutral paintings and a therapist who asked gentle questions like landmines.

Jason deleted his Facebook account. I watched him tap through the settings and confirm it. We shared passwords. Calendars. He sent texts when he was five minutes late and asked before making plans.

A cellphone on a table | Source: Midjourney

A cellphone on a table | Source: Midjourney

He got quieter. Listened more. He flinched every time the topic turned to Emily.

But something in me had shifted.

I smiled through some of the sessions and said all the right things, but in the quiet spaces—in bed, in the car, making toasted sandwiches—I felt it.

Toasted sandwiches on a board | Source: Midjourney

Toasted sandwiches on a board | Source: Midjourney

The ground wasn’t level anymore.

The man I used to trust without question had introduced doubt into the blueprint. The tiny tremors hadn’t stopped, even if the apology had been offered.

And sometimes, healing feels less like mending and more like learning how to live with the crack.

A pensive man sitting on a couch | Source: Midjourney

A pensive man sitting on a couch | Source: Midjourney

People sometimes ask how we moved past it, how I stayed with Jason… how I forgave him. They ask carefully, like the answer might undo something in their own lives.

I don’t offer any clichés. I don’t say “because I loved him,” or “because people make mistakes.” Those things are true, but they aren’t the reason.

The truth is quieter.

A nonchalant woman standing on a porch | Source: Midjourney

A nonchalant woman standing on a porch | Source: Midjourney

After everything unraveled, after the Facebook post and the confrontation and the shaky apology, I sat alone at the kitchen table one night and wrote a list. Not the playful, pointed list I gave him with the clipboard.

A real one. Private.

I wrote down every opportunity I could have taken to betray him right back. The moments I could have used my pain as a license to be reckless. The people who would’ve welcomed me if I’d reached out.

The invitations I could have accepted without explanation. The places I could have gone where he wouldn’t have followed.

A woman sitting at a table and writing | Source: Midjourney

A woman sitting at a table and writing | Source: Midjourney

I wrote it all out. Line by line.

And then I looked at it for a long time.

There’s a kind of power in knowing what you could do and choosing not to. It doesn’t feel like weakness. It feels like clarity.

I realized I wasn’t staying out of passivity. I was staying because I still believed something could be rebuilt, maybe not the exact shape we had before, but something real.

A smiling woman | Source: Midjourney

A smiling woman | Source: Midjourney

Something honest.

Trust isn’t a light switch. It doesn’t come back the second someone says “I messed up.” It’s slow. Uneven. Sometimes you think it’s returning, only to feel it vanish again the moment something feels off.

Therapy was an eye-opener. Jason listened more than he spoke. I spoke more than I wanted to. There were moments when we couldn’t look each other in the eye.

But we stayed in the room.

A pensive man sitting on a couch | Source: Midjourney

A pensive man sitting on a couch | Source: Midjourney

What brought us through wasn’t grand gestures. It was the accumulation of small choices. A hundred moments where he had to earn back something he never should’ve gambled.

And for me, it was that list. It was knowing what I could’ve done and choosing not to.

That choice, quiet and unseen, became the foundation for everything that came after.

We’re still here. Still building. Still flawed.

A woman standing on a porch | Source: Midjourney

A woman standing on a porch | Source: Midjourney

But I don’t flinch when he says that he has a work trip. I don’t check flight confirmations or second-guess a photo someone else posts online. That’s not because I forgot.

But it’s because he remembered to be truthful and honest and to honor our vows.

A man walking out of a house | Source: Midjourney

A man walking out of a house | Source: Midjourney

What would you have done?

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