WHEN a flight attendant called for a doctor on board, one raised his hand, unaware he was about to deliver a baby at 30,000ft (9,144m).
Datuk Dr Gurcharan Singh said he was ushered from economy into the business class cabin, where a woman was in labour.
“It was nighttime and I was half-asleep,” recalled Dr Gurcharan who was then a sports physician for Kuala Lumpur Football Association (KLFA).
“I had no medical supplies, not even gloves or scissors.
“Thankfully, the delivery went smoothly and took just 10 minutes,” he said of helping German-born Ilona Purwanto, who was flying with two older children.
It was April 1990 and Dr Gurcharan was travelling with KLFA aboard a Czechoslovak Airlines flight to Czechoslovakia for a training programme, when the unexpected call came.
After the delivery he stayed with Ilona until the plane landed, to ensure she was doing well.
The baby girl, later named Sandra Olga Purwanto, became part of an extraordinary chapter in the airline’s history.
She was reported to be the first baby born aboard one of its flights in the airline’s then 67-year history.
(Czechoslovakia peacefully dissolved into Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1993).
In the years that followed, Dr Gurcharan tried to reconnect with the family but his attempts were unsuccessful.
More than three decades later, Sandra, now a television presenter and entrepreneur in Indonesia, found him on social media.
She said her mother had asked her to seek out the doctor who had helped bring her into the world.
“My mother showed me his picture on Facebook,” she said.
The two arranged to meet when Sandra visited Kuala Lumpur with her husband and daughter for a holiday.
The dinner in the city was full of happy chatter, with Sandra and Dr Gurcharan poring over photographs and media reports of the incident.
Sandra said she wanted to meet the man behind the story she had grown up hearing.
“I am 36 now and I wanted to know the story and the person who had helped bring me into this world.
“And I can’t wait to tell my mother about this meeting.”
Being born aboard an aeroplane has remained an unusual conversation starter for Sandra.
“People are often surprised when I tell them about this story.
“I tell them they can look it up, as it was widely reported in the newspapers at the time,” she said.
Despite the decades that had passed, the meeting quickly took on the warmth of a family reunion.
“Sandra feels like family and I am happy to have been part of her life,” said Dr Gurcharan.
“She’s like a daughter to me.”
