Woman arrested after dead baby found on Etihad flight

An Indonesian woman has been arrested after a dead baby was found in the toilet of an Etihad plane in Jakarta.

The flight was diverted to Bangkok after the 37-year-old fell, named as ‘Hani’, fell ill and began bleeding around four hours after take-off from Abu Dhabi.

She was removed from the plane in Thailand for medical treatment but the dead newborn was not discovered until the flight reached its final destination in Indonesia.

Passenger Francesco Calore told AFP that the woman, described as a migrant worker from Cianjur in Western Java, was in economy but laid on a business class seat with an oxygen mask after she fell ill.

She eventually flew home on a later flight after recovering.

Jakarta Airport police chief Ahmad Yusef told the news service the body of the baby was discovered by ground cleaners wrapped in a plastic bag in the drawer of a plane toilet.

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

Hani is understood to have worked as a domestic assistant in the UAE capital Abu Dhabi for four years.

Sex outside of marriage is illegal in the UAE. Single women who fall pregnant often seek black market abortions or flee the country rather than face arrest from authorities.