A woman gave birth to a child on board a British Airways jet flying from London to Boston. The pilot received permission to land in Nova Scotia when it became clear there was a delivery in progress, but the baby was born before the plane could land. As far as what goes on this child’s birth certificate next to “Place of Birth” and of what country this child can claim citizenship, it all depends on who you ask. In this case, we’ve got a mother described by the British Airways crew as Egyptian and traveling on a U.S. passport, and a plane that took off in Britain bound for the United States that landed in Canada. So where is this child from?
Almost every country in the world, as well as the United Nations, has procedures and recommendations for how to properly classify the geographic details of an in-air birth. The United Nations considers a child born in-flight to have been born in the airplane’s registered country. Some countries point to the city where the child first disembarked the plane as the place of birth, and to the airplane’s registered country as the place of citizenship. Of course, citizenship and birthplace are two different topics — citizenship is typically a larger issue and may require some paperwork, while writing a child’s birthplace on a birth certificate is often a less legally significant consideration.