The body of a newborn baby was found wrapped in a plastic bag and stashed in the bathroom of a plane after the mother gave birth during the flight, according to local reports.
The cleaning crew of an Ethiad flight made the horrific discovery at Jakarta International Airport on Saturday night and a 37-year-old woman was arrested.
The Indonesian mother, identified by local media as Hani, was removed from the flight after she started to bleed heavily hours into the flight from Abu Dhabi, forcing the pilot to divert to Bangkok.
Although she disembarked in Thailand, the dead baby was only found inside a lavatory drawer after it made its way to the final destination, according to Sky News.
She was arrested after the gruesome discovery but Jakarta Airport police chief Ahmad Yusef said the woman “didn’t look healthy and won’t be questioned until she is fit. The woman is now at the airport’s health centre”.
Hani, a migrant worker in Abu Dhabi for four years, reportedly admitted to investigators the child was her baby and she had left him in the bathroom because her employer had impregnated her while working in the United Arab Emirates.
The woman, according to the Jakarta Post, is married to another man with children.
“The woman was in economy class but then laid on a business class seat with an oxygen mask,” said crew member Francesco Calore.
“The captain then announced we should divert to Bangkok.”
Authorities are still attempting to determine the baby’s cause of death.
