Manila International Airport Authority general manager Alfonso Cusi ordered airport police to trail a suspected murderer, who suffocated her newly born child with napkins until the baby died, shortly after she gave birth in the lavatory of an Etihad Airlines on Monday afternoon.
The lead came shortly after the police, during an investigation, found a woman passenger who revealed that there was another pregnant passenger ahead of her who seemed to be fidgety during the flight.
The woman, who remained unidentified, said she was seated on the economy class 41K of the Etihad’s B-777.
According to the eyewitness, the woman left her seat and was gone for a long time before coming back. She added that they were on the flight from Abu Dhabi to Manila. However, the eyewitness said that she did not notice anything unusual thereafter, except that upon landing, she heard that the flight attendants found a dead newborn boy in the airplane’s lavatory.
The crew found out that the boy’s mouth was stuffed with napkin tissue, apparently to prevent the boy from being heard crying shortly after the mother gave birth in the lavatory.
Cusi ordered that the body be immediately brought to the nearest funeral homes after being inspected by doctors at the airport clinic.
He said that the police reported the incident, and thereafter got the airplane’s passenger manifest to locate who was seated ahead of 41K.
Once they find the name of the passenger, Cusi said the police will trace the passenger’s whereabouts.
The other approach would be to comb Metro Manila’s hospitals and find out whether any female passenger of EY428 had checked in on Monday.
EY428, a modern wide-body airplane of Boeing could accommodate more than 300 passengers, according to Eric Ines. – Rudy Santos