An Afghan mother gave birth while being evacuated out of Kabul, with the baby having been delivered aboard the aircraft.
According to a statement released by the Air Mobility Command on Twitter, the Afghan mother had been traveling from an Intermediate Staging Base in the Middle East on August 21.
While the mother is still on the US Air Force C-17 flight, she went into labor and started to have complications.
At this point, the US aircraft commander made the decision to descend in altitude in order to increase the air pressure within the plane.
The commander’s decision to descend ultimately ‘helped stabilize and save the mother’s life’.
After the US aircraft landed at Germany’s Ramstein Air Base, aviators from the 86th MDG came aboard the plane and delivered the baby girl in the cargo bay.
The photos uploaded on Twitter captured the moments after the birth.
The medical support personnel from the 86th Medical Group can be seen helping the woman and her family off the plane.
The Afghan mother and her newborn daughter were then taken to a nearby medical facility where they are perceived to be in a ‘good condition’.
American and British troops have been carrying out evacuation missions in Afghanistan in the aftermath of the Taliban takeover, with the Ramstein Air Base being one of the key transit points for those fleeing the Taliban.
On August 21, the White House announced that the US military has so far evacuated approximately 17,000 people from the international airport in Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International airport.