Baby Born and Abandoned on International Flight

(Auckland, New Zealand) A 29-year-old Samoan woman has been charged with assault after allegedly giving birth on an international flight and then leaving the newborn infant in a toilet rubbish bin.

The episode occurred last week on a Pacific Blue Airlines flight from Samoa to New Zealand. Airplane cleaners discovered the baby in the trash.

The mother allegedly abandoned the baby on landing, but returned later. Mother and child were taken to hospital and were both reported to be doing well.

Detective Inspector Mark Gutry said police would investigate whether the baby was born in Samoan or New Zealand airspace.

"There are a whole lot of issues around that - the aircraft and were that is from, where they have come from, where exactly she was born. So there are a whole lot of issues around that to be addressed," he said.

In summary, a noticeably full-term pregnant woman leaves her assigned seat and waddles to the airplane bathroom. There, she stays for 20, maybe 30 or more minutes, and makes no sounds heard outside the bathroom. No screams of pain nor baby's cries.

She then returns to her seat. She's sweating profusely and looks like she just ran the Boston Marathon while shedding a couple bowling balls-worth of weight. Nobody notices.

Hey, but she returned to the airplane and now everything is hunky-dory. Mom and offspring are doing just fine in the hospital.

Odd story, eh? It doesn't seem to make a lot of sense.