BA baby returns to the skies
Contributors are not employed, compensated or governed by TD, opinions and statements are from the contributor directly
Shona Owen stepped back on to a British Airways flight last week, 18 years after she was born on a BA flight as it came into land at Gatwick.
As the only UK citizen whose passport reads ‘Born on an aeroplane, ten miles south of Mayfield, Sussex’, BA offered Ms Owen free First Class flights to anywhere in the world to celebrate her 18th Birthday.
“I decided to use my tickets for a trip to Australia to surprise my grandmother on her 80th birthday, so it will be a double birthday celebration. I was a bit too young to appreciate all the luxuries of BA’s First Class service last time,” she said.
Her mother Deborah Owen, who was working in Ghana at the time, went into labour on board the BA flight. Six weeks premature, Ms Owen made an appearance with the help of the BA cabin crew and Dutch doctor Wym Bakker, who answered an appeal on board the DC10 aircraft.
Shona is one of three babies born on BA flights in the past 20 years, and now features in an advert for the airline.