Baby born 1,400 feet above Cornwall on coastguard helicopter

A baby was born on a coastguard helicopter around 1,400 feet above Cornwall as medics attempted to rush his mother to hospital for the delivery.

Alicia MacDonald gave birth to son Torran above Penzance after she had gone into labour while visiting the Isles of Scilly.

She had been on the islands to conduct the ceremony for a friend’s wedding when she went into labour earlier than expected on Saturday evening.

As there was no midwife service on the islands that eveningm the coastguard was asked by South West Ambulance Service to fly Ms MacDonald and her husband, Sandy, to the mainland.

So an aircraft stationed at Newquay was scrambled and collected a midwife before picking up the expectant mother and beginning the journey to the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro.

But baby Torran, in no mood to wait around, was born on the aircraft, weighing 7lb and 8oz.

“Torran is doing fine and we'd like to thank the coastguard, the midwife and the midwifery team at the hospital,“ Ms MacDonald said, who was already mother to daughter Fearne.

Jonathan Mustard, aeronautical operations controller for HM Coastguard, said Torran was only the second baby born on board one of the service’s helicopters, the first being Lunna Holm above Shetland in December 2012.

“It's rare to hear that our helicopter launched with seven people on board but were preparing to land with eight,” he said: “Congratulations mum and dad.”

Additional reporting by PA