Woman who worked in UAE arrested after dead baby found in plane toilet

A woman suspected to be the mother of a newborn baby found dead in a plane toilet in Jakarta was arrested yesterday.

Hani, 37, an Indonesian who worked in Abu Dhabi for four years, was held soon after arriving from Bangkok at Soekarno-Hatta airport about 1am, airport police chief Ahmad Yusef said.

“She didn’t look healthy and won’t be questioned until she is fit,” Mr Yusef said. “The woman is now at the airport’s health centre.”

Police suspect that Hani secretly gave birth during the flight from Bangkok to Jakarta on Saturday. About four hours after take-off she began bleeding, forcing the captain to divert back to Bangkok.

“The woman was in economy class but then lay on a business-class seat with an oxygen mask. The captain then announced we should divert to Bangkok,” crew member Francesco Calore said.

A medical team boarded the plane to help Hani after the Airbus A330 landed at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi International Airport, Mr Calore said.

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

Ground cleaners in Jakarta found the full-term dead baby wrapped in a plastic bag in a drawer in one of the plane’s toilets, Mr Yusef said.

He said the cause of death had yet to be determined.

A medical team boarded the plane to help Hani after the Airbus A330 landed at Bangkok