Daughter of first baby born on Loganair flight joins airline’s cabin crew

A TEENAGER whose mother was the first baby to be born on board a Loganair aircraft has become a member of the airline’s cabin crew.

Chloe Stott, 18, is the daughter of Katy Stott, who was born 2,000 feet above Orkney on August 2, 1973.

Her mother Freida Devin had boarded the air ambulance in Stronsay to travel to hospital in Kirkwall but baby Katy arrived only a few minutes into the eight-minute flight.

Thick fog then prevented the Britten-Norman Islander aircraft from landing in Kirkwall and Captain Jamie Bayley had to divert to Aberdeen, about an hour and ten minutes away.

Miss Stott and her mother both have a deep interest in aviation and the teenager has now fulfilled her ambition of becoming a cabin crew attendant, having completed a training course to join Loganair.

She said: “I’ve wanted to be a cabin crew attendant for as long as I can remember.

“It’s probably linked to the unusual circumstances in which my mum was born but both of us share this interest.

“My family is originally from Orkney, so it’s wonderful to be working for an airline which holds such established roots with the islands and I’m looking forward to working on some of the services operating to Kirkwall.”

She has just moved from Orkney to Aberdeen, where she will be based from for work.

Captain Bayley still remembers the night Katy was born en route to Kirkwall, with a nurse and doctor on board.

He said: “You can imagine the noise and stress in the small Islander cabin leading up to this moment and the huge relief at the birth of a healthy baby.

“We diverted to Aberdeen, which was especially opened for us, duly amended the flight plan to add another soul on board and we were greeted on arrival by police and ambulance.”

As they could not fly back to Kirkwall immediately, he and the doctor – who has since died – accepted the offer of accommodation in two police cells for the night.

Once Mrs Devin and her baby daughter had returned to the island in 1973, Loganair presented her and husband Charlie with an inscribed goblet for Katy to mark the occasion alongside a model Islander plane on a wooden plaque.

Mrs Stott, 43, owes her name in part to the experience as she was christened Katy Ferguson Leynair Devin, adopting the doctor’s surname while inheriting “Ley” after Captain Bayley and “nair” from Loganair.

Mrs Devin, who now lives in Elgin, Moray, said: “It’s not how I imagined I’d give birth to my third child and looking back on it, it seems a bit more dramatic than it actually was.

“I knew I was in capable hands, with everyone doing their best to keep me comfortable for the duration of the flight.

“It was only afterwards that I found out Katy was the first baby to be born on an air ambulance, which is an interesting conversation starter.

“It was also nice of the airline to offer us such thoughtful gifts and I’m still grateful to everyone who was there to assist me on that summer night, over 40 years ago.”

In total, 22 babies were born aboard Loganair air ambulance services.