Police to look into death of infant born aboard flight from the Philippines

(123rf)

A baby boy born Sunday aboard a plane headed to Incheon from the Philippines has died, according to the Incheon International Airport Police Corps.

The 119 emergency operators received a report at around 6:44 a.m. that a baby born inside the plane was not breathing. The child's heart had stopped by the time emergency workers arrived, and he was pronounced dead after being taken to a nearby hospital.

The mother, a Filipino woman in her 30s, was on board with her husband, her mother-in-law, and her daughter, all nationals of the Philippines. The Jeju Air flight from Clark International Airport was set to land at Incheon at around 6:21 a.m.

The airport police at Incheon said they would investigate the matter, including how the boy came to be born aboard a plane and how he died.

The police said they have jurisdiction in the case as it occurred inside an aircraft registered and flagged in Korea. International agreements permit varying degrees of jurisdiction over nationally flagged vessels, known as flag state jurisdiction.