The mother of a baby born on an airplane that was taking her to a hospital in Anchorage has named her son Sky because of his unique birth and first experience. Chrystal Hicks gave birth to Sky Airon Hicks on Aug. 5 around 1 a.m. after boarding a plane to be flown from the small community of Glennallen to a hospital. She was 35 weeks pregnant.

“I was just having contractions and it wouldn’t stop, and it kept getting stronger and they thought we were going to make it,” Hicks said. “But we obviously didn’t make it very far.”

Hicks gave birth less than an hour into the flight, she said.

“It was shocking, it was really weird at first, I didn’t know what to think,”Hicks said. “But everybody kept talking about the baby on the plane.”

Hicks and her son made it safely to the hospital. Sky was placed on a breathing machine when he arrived because he was born a month premature. The baby is expected to be discharged from the hospital next week.

Hicks said filing out the birth certificate information was difficult because they were about 18,000 feet (5,500 metres) in the air.

“I just put Anchorage,” Hicks said. “I didn’t want to put on a plane or in the sky.”

Hicks has three other children – ages 3, 9 and 11.