Local

Baby born on flight to Orlando ‘thriving,' family says

ORLANDO, Fla. — Southwest Airlines Flight 556 from Philadelphia to Orlando was like any other flight Sunday until passenger Erica Walton went into labor.

“Before they got on the plane, she was not really feeling that great. And then they got on the plane and she started feeling worse,” said Erica Walton’s sister, Lisa Barber. “She thought, ‘We will go home and see what happens.’ She said the next thing she knew, her water broke.”

Erica Walton, her husband Chris Walton, and Barber were coming home from the Waltons’ baby shower.

Barber had to get on another flight for a business trip.

When she landed, she got the call that her nephew made his way into the world 14 weeks early on an airplane.

In a cellphone video from another passenger, the baby can be heard crying shortly after his birth. He was delivered by two doctors and a nurse.

The pilot made an emergency landing in Charleston, South Carolina, where ‘Baby Jet’ remains hospitalized.

He weighs just two pounds.

“He has a test tube. He’s in an incubator. He has a feeding tube. But for a baby born at 26 weeks, I am just amazed at how well he is thriving,” said Barber. “They can't even hold him right now. They can touch him, touch his head, touch his fingers, touch his toes, but he has a feeding tube so they are not able to hold him.”

Barber was on her way to South Carolina on Friday to get her first look at her new nephew and to bring the family some much-needed supplies.

The Waltons have no family in South Carolina and only have the clothes in their suitcase.

They can’t get back to work and it could be a month or two before Baby Jet can go home.

Barber has set up a GoFundMe page for the family.

The baby may be able to be transferred to a Central Florida hospital once he is stronger.