New-born baby found dead on plane in Indonesia

AFP  |  Jakarta 

today detained the suspected mother of a new-born baby who was found dead in a aircraft toilet at

Hani, a 37-year-old migrant worker from Cianjur in West Java, was held soon after arriving from at Soekarno- Hatta airport around 1:00 am, said Ahmad Yusef.


"She didn't look healthy and won't be questioned until she is fit. The woman is now at the airport's health centre," Yusef told AFP.

Police suspect that Hani, who had worked as a domestic helper in for four years, secretly gave birth during an Etihad flight from there to yesterday.

Around four hours after take-off she began bleeding, forcing the to divert to

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

A medical team boarded the plane to evacuate after the A330 landed at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi International Airport, he added.

The flight left for around an hour later without the sick woman, who flew home on a later flight.

Ground cleaners in found the full-term dead baby wrapped in a plastic bag in a drawer in one of the plane's toilets, Yusef said, adding the cause of death had yet to be determined.

An estimated five million Indonesians work abroad, of whom around 70 per cent are female domestic helpers.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

First Published: Sun, January 07 2018. 19:15 IST