Newborn Found Dead on Etihad Airliner

Image: PHOTO: A woman is believed to have given birth in secret on a flight from Abu Dhabi to Jakarta. (photo via Flickr/Kentaro lemoto) (Flickr/Kentaro Iemoto)
Image: PHOTO: A woman is believed to have given birth in secret on a flight from Abu Dhabi to Jakarta. (photo via Flickr/Kentaro lemoto) (Flickr/Kentaro Iemoto)
Patrick Clarke
by Patrick Clarke
Last updated: 8:38 AM ET, Tue January 9, 2018

A newborn baby was found dead and wrapped inside a plastic bag in an airplane bathroom at Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta International Airport over the weekend.

According to Agence France-Presse (AFP), authorities arrested a 37-year-old migrant worker from Cianjur in West Java in connection with the grisly discovery.

The woman, who was only identified as Hani, is believed to have secretly given birth during an Etihad Airways flight from Abu Dhabi Saturday. The Jakarta-bound flight was diverted to Bangkok after the woman began bleeding approximately four hours into the trip.

"The woman was in economy class but then laid on a business-class seat with an oxygen mask. The captain then announced we should divert to Bangkok," passenger Francesco Calore told AFP.

Hani was evacuated from the flight by a medical team at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport before returning home on a later flight.

According to The Jakarta Post, Hani admitted to leaving the child in the lavatory bin and said she did so because the baby was the result of a relationship with her employer in Abu Dhabi. She has a husband and children in Indonesia and had been working as a domestic helper abroad for four years.

"She didn't look healthy and won't be questioned until she is fit. The woman is now at the airport's health center," Soekarno-Hatta International Airport police chief Ahmad Yusef told AFP.

The child's cause of death is undetermined, and it's not clear whether the full-term baby was alive when the woman wrapped him up and placed him in a drawer in one of the plane's toilets.

As Business Insider points out, Etihad requires expectant mothers to obtain a medical certificate to fly during the final 10 weeks of their pregnancy.

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