At least four Russian airliners made emergency landings in the past 48 hours — three after experiencing technical problems and the fourth when a woman unexpectedly gave birth to a baby daughter.
No one was injured in any of the incidents.
An Aeroflot A321 jet returned to Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport shortly after taking off around 9:45 a.m. Wednesday for Larnaca, Cyprus, when the left landing gear refused to retract, Interfax reported.
The plane landed safely, and its 137 passengers were transferred to another plane, which left for Larnaca at 1:15 p.m.
Another Aeroflot plane, a Sukhoi Superjet-100, made an emergency landing at 5:43 a.m. Wednesday in Nizhnekamsk, Tatarstan, after pilots reported a possible buildup of ice on the wings, Interfax said. The plane, which had been flying from Sheremetyevo Airport to Nizhnekamsk, landed safely with 65 passengers and five crew members.
Also in Tatarstan, a Yak-42 operated by the Tatarstan airline made an emergency landing at 7:20 a.m. Wednesday at the Kazan airport after its landing gear refused to retract on takeoff, Interfax reported.
The plane, carrying 107 passengers and five crew members from Kazan to Moscow's Domodedovo Airport, landed safely, and the passengers were to be placed on another aircraft.
But at least one emergency landing had a happy ending.
A female passenger unexpectedly went into labor after her water broke midway through an Aeroflot flight from Simferopol, Ukraine, to Moscow on Monday night, the airline said.
The passenger gave birth to a girl at 9 p.m. with the assistance of four flight attendants and a fellow passenger, Sofia Kovalyova, who is a nurse, it said.
The A321 jet made an emergency landing at the airport in Kharkiv, Ukraine, and the mother and newborn were whisked off by ambulance to the hospital.
"Aeroflot thanks Sofia Kovalyova and the crew of Flight SU1825 for their support and assistance in the childbirth, and wishes good health to the newborn girl and her mother," the airline said in a statement.
The last time a baby was born on an Aeroflot flight was on Sept. 14, 2005, when a Russian mother gave birth to a boy on a Boeing 767 flying from Moscow to Los Angeles, the airline said.
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