Woman Gives Birth, Then Abandons Baby on Plane

The woman suspected of giving birth in the restroom of a United Airlines jet before a cross-country flight and stuffing the infant under the sink was arrested this morning and booked for investigation of attempted murder, authorities said.

Christina Locasto, 24, of Staten Island, N.Y., turned herself in to San Mateo County sheriff’s deputies in Redwood City about 4:15 a.m., Sheriff’s Lt. Mike Dow said.

Locasto’s husband, Louis, 26, who traveled with her and their 3-year-old daughter on the flight, was not arrested.

“We have reason to believe at this time he didn’t know she was pregnant,” Dow said.

Meanwhile, the baby, found in a mass of blood-soaked towels Wednesday, was listed in good condition at Mills Memorial Hospital in San Mateo, where nurses had named the 8-pound, 9-ounce girl Elizabeth.

A United Airlines cleaning crew found the infant about 20 minutes after Flight 35 landed at San Francisco International Airport at 11:42 p.m. Wednesday.

Dow said flight attendants told him that a woman had asked to use the bathroom as the flight was preparing to take off in Newark.

The plane was delayed 30 minutes as flight attendants pounded on the door, urging the woman to come out of the bathroom so the plane could take off.

When she finally came out, flight attendants found the bathroom splattered with blood. Believing that the woman had suffered severe diarrhea, the crew sealed off the bathroom for the rest of the flight until the cleaning crew boarded the flight after it landed at San Francisco International Airport.

Detectives traced Locasto through the passenger list and contacted the couple’s relatives on the East Coast, who contacted relatives the Locastos were visiting in Los Altos, Dow said. The couple had planned to continue south to Disneyland, he said.