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A routine passenger flight from Jamaica<\/a> landed at New York<\/a>\u2019s John F Kennedy international airport with one more person than it took off with after a woman gave birth in midair, potentially setting up a tricky situation over the newborn\u2019s citizenship.<\/p>\n The \u201cmedical event\u201d occurred on a Caribbean Airlines flight from Kingston on Saturday, according to a news release<\/a> from the carrier.<\/p>\n \u201cUpon arrival, the mother and newborn were attended to by medical personnel and are receiving the necessary care,\u201d the statement said. It did not say whether the baby was a boy or girl \u2013 or at what stage of the four-hour flight the infant was born.<\/p>\n In a conversation between the pilot of flight BW005 \u2013 designated Caribbean<\/a> 5 \u2013 and the Queens airport\u2019s tower, an air traffic controller suggested a name for the baby.<\/p>\n \u201cAll right, tell her she\u2019s got to name it Kennedy,\u201d the controller said after the pilot responded to the question \u201cIs it out yet?\u201d in the affirmative.<\/p>\n \u201cAh, Kennedy, will do,\u201d the pilot responded while laughing, according to a transcript obtained by CBS News<\/a>.<\/p>\n The birth quickly prompted a debate about citizenship for the infant, which remains uncertain because of a lack of information about the status of the parents \u2013 and where the plane was at the exact moment the baby was born.<\/p>\n If either parent is already a US citizen, the baby will also be one. If not, US citizenship laws<\/a> published by the federal state department come into play.<\/p>\n By law, US airspace is defined as the same as its territorial waters, namely within 12 miles of the coastline. \u201cThe rules applicable to vessels obviously apply equally to airplanes,\u201d the document states. \u201cThus a child born on a plane in the US or flying over its territory would acquire US citizenship at birth.<\/p>\n \u201cGenerally speaking, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) would require some documentation of the birth, generally an excerpt of the ship\u2019s\/aircraft\u2019s medical log or master\/captain\u2019s log, reflecting the time, latitude, and longitude when the birth occurred.\u201d<\/p>\n Under the 14th amendment to the US constitution, \u201call persons born or naturalized in the US and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the US\u201d. The executive order Donald Trump issued at the beginning of his second presidency restricting US citizenship to children born only to citizens and lawful permanent residents was blocked by a federal court and is awaiting a final ruling by the supreme court after oral arguments on 1 April<\/a>.<\/p>\n The US government does not publish figures of babies born on international flights within its airspace. The most recent research is a study<\/a> published in 2019 by a professor at Ohio\u2019s Bowling Green State University, recording 74 births on 73 commercial flights between 1929 and 2018 \u2013 with two of the babies not surviving.<\/p>\n