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
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
“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
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 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
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
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
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
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.
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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.
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On Our Wedding Night, I Took off My Wedding Dress – When My Husband Saw What Was Underneath, He Ran Away in Tears
“No, this can’t be happening!” My husband’s anticipation for our wedding night turned to horror when I took off my wedding dress. I’d been keeping the secret of what lay beneath my dress all day, but it was finally time to expose a shocking revelation.
I had a perfect fairytale wedding. Greg stood at the end of the aisle, beaming like he’d just won the lottery. See, Greg thought this was the start of our perfect life together, but I knew the truth.
A bride with a cunning smile | Source: Midjourney
That perfect bubble we were living in was about to burst. But not yet, not until I was ready to pop it.
The reception went on like a dream — champagne glasses clinking, laughter echoing across the perfectly manicured lawns, and Greg’s parents playing the role of doting in-laws. After all, their perfect little boy deserved the perfect little day, didn’t he?
And me? I played my part. I smiled at the right moments and laughed when someone told us a joke. I even danced with Greg like everything was just fine.
A couple on their wedding day | Source: Midjourney
Greg thought he knew me. He thought he had me all figured out, but he was wrong.
As the night wore on, Greg’s anticipation for our wedding night became almost unbearable. He couldn’t hide it, not that he was trying to.
His touches lingered too long, and his smile was too wide. I felt like a performer on stage, playing a part that had been written for me long before I even agreed to put on the dress. But I had my own script.
A bride | Source: Midjourney
We finally said our goodbyes to the guests, thanking them for coming and accepting their compliments about how beautiful everything had been. Greg’s parents stayed downstairs in the guest rooms, giving us privacy, and Greg couldn’t wait to get me upstairs.
His hand tightened around mine as he led me to the master suite, the same one his parents had graciously let us use for our first night together as husband and wife. How poetic.
He was practically giddy as he closed the door behind us.
A man closing a door | Source: Midjourney
The atmosphere in the room shifted, the excitement in the air becoming almost tangible. I could see it in his eyes as he came toward me, his hands already reaching for the zipper of my wedding dress.
“I’ve been waiting all night for this,” he murmured against my neck, his breath hot and full of promise.
I smiled, a small, secret smile that he couldn’t see. “Me too.”
A smiling woman | Source: Midjourney
He carefully unzipped my dress. I stood perfectly still, my heart racing. He was so eager, so confident in what was coming next. He didn’t have a clue.
When the dress finally fell to the floor, I turned around slowly. I’ll never forget the look on his face when he saw what was underneath. He looked like a man standing on the edge of a cliff, teetering, trying to keep his balance.
“No…” His voice cracked, barely above a whisper. “No, no, no! This can’t be happening!”
A shocked man | Source: Midjourney
The tattoo of Greg’s ex, Sarah, stretched across my torso, down to my waist. The words he’d said to her the night before our wedding were perfectly inscribed beneath her face: “One last taste of freedom before I’m bound to the same body forever.”
It was temporary, sure. But Greg didn’t know that. It was authentic enough to make his knees buckle beneath him.
“How did you know?” He sobbed, his gaze fixed on the tattoo.
A man on his knees | Source: Midjourney
“Sarah was only too eager to rub your betrayal in my face,” I spat.
“I didn’t mean it,” he sobbed, his voice thick with regret. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean it!”
That’s when we heard the footsteps. Marianne and James burst through the door, their faces full of concern.
“What’s going on?” Marianne’s voice trembled as her eyes darted between her sobbing son and me. Then, her gaze fell on the tattoo. Her face went white.
A shocked woman | Source: Midjourney
“It’s simple,” I replied. “Greg cheated on me.”
Marianne’s gasp filled the room, sharp and full of disbelief. James, Greg’s father, stood frozen in the doorway. He was always the stoic one, the quiet type who let Marianne handle the dramatics. But this? This was something even he couldn’t swallow.
He wasn’t a man of many words, but the tension in his clenched fists, the way his jaw tightened — he didn’t need to say anything. It was all right there in his expression.
An angry man | Source: Midjourney
For a moment, silence stretched between us. The weight of the truth hung in the air, heavy and suffocating. Greg was still on the floor, hands gripping his hair as if that would somehow keep him from falling apart completely.
Marianne’s gaze flicked back to Greg, her lips quivering. “Greg? Is this true?”
She took a shaky step toward him, her voice fragile, like she was begging him to tell her that what she was seeing wasn’t real, that her son couldn’t have done something so unforgivable.
An emotional woman | Source: Midjourney
Greg didn’t answer. He couldn’t. His whole body was trembling, his shoulders shaking as sobs wracked his chest.
“Tell me!” Marianne’s voice cracked, breaking under the pressure of her disbelief. “Tell me it’s not true!”
James stepped forward. His face was like stone, but I could see the fury simmering beneath the surface. He towered over Greg, his hands balled into fists, his whole body radiating a barely contained rage.
“Gregory,” he growled, his voice low and dangerous. “Is this true?”
An angry man | Source: Midjourney
Still, Greg couldn’t bring himself to respond. His sobs had quieted, but he remained a crumpled mess on the floor, unable to face the reality of what he had done. I decided to step in.
“He slept with her the night before our wedding,” I said, my voice cutting through the tension like a knife. “He told her he needed ‘one last taste of freedom before he was bound to the same body forever.'”
Marianne let out a strangled sob, collapsing onto the edge of the bed as her world came crashing down around her.
A woman sitting on a bed | Source: Midjourney
James’s face darkened. His nostrils flared as he glared down at his son. Disgust and disappointment warring in his expression.
“You’ve disgraced this family,” he spat, his voice tight with fury. “How dare you? How could you betray Lilith like this?”
Greg’s head snapped up, his eyes wild with panic. “I’m sorry,” he choked out, his voice barely audible. “I didn’t mean for this to happen. I-I made a mistake.”
“A mistake?” I echoed, my voice rising with incredulity.
A furious woman | Source: Midjourney
“You call sleeping with your ex the night before our wedding a mistake?” I stepped closer to him, the rage I’d been holding back finally bubbling to the surface. “No, you made a choice, Greg. A deliberate, calculated choice to betray me. And now you’re paying for it.”
Greg turned his tear-streaked face toward me, his eyes wide with desperation. “Please, Lilith… please, I love you. I didn’t mean for any of this to happen. I’ll do anything! Just please, don’t leave me.”
I laughed then, a cold, hollow sound that echoed through the room.
A grimacing woman | Source: Midjourney
“Love me? You love me?” I shook my head in disbelief. “Greg, you don’t know the first thing about love. If you did, you wouldn’t have done what you did. You wouldn’t have betrayed me like that.”
He reached for me, his hands trembling, his eyes pleading. “Please… I’m begging you.”
I stepped back, letting him fall short, my eyes hard and unfeeling. “I’m done, Greg. This is over. You destroyed us the moment you decided to crawl back to Sarah.”
His father, James, stepped forward then, his voice a low growl.
A furious man | Source: Midjourney
“Get up,” he ordered Greg, his patience finally wearing thin. “Get up and face what you’ve done.”
Greg hesitated for a moment, then slowly pushed himself to his feet, his knees still wobbling beneath him. He looked so pathetic, standing there in his wrinkled wedding suit, his face streaked with tears, his whole world crumbling around him.
I turned to Marianne and James, who were still trying to process the fallout. Marianne’s face was red and swollen from crying, while James’s expression was a storm of disappointment and fury.
A serious woman | Source: Midjourney
“I’m leaving,” I announced, my voice steady and calm, the decision final. “You can deal with him now.”
“Lilith, please,” Greg begged one last time, his voice breaking. “Please don’t go.”
But I was already done. I turned away from him, from the mess of our ruined wedding night, and reached for my robe. I slipped it over my shoulders, covering the tattoo, and made my way toward the door.
“Lilith,” Greg called after me, his voice full of desperation. “I’ll change! I’ll make it right!”
A pleading man | Source: Midjourney
But I didn’t even bother to respond. There was nothing left to say.
As I stepped out of the room, I heard James’s voice, low and furious, booming through the silence. “This is what you’ve done, Greg. You’ve ruined everything.”
And then, Greg’s pitiful sobs. His cries echoed through the house, but they didn’t touch me. I walked down the stairs, feeling lighter with every step. I was free. Free from him, free from the lies, free from the betrayal.
A woman on a staircase | Source: Midjourney
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