Grandparents Get Custody of Child Born on Jet

The paternal grandparents of a girl born in a jetliner restroom and abandoned under the sink were awarded custody of the baby Friday. The parents were allowed supervised visits six hours a week.

Three-month-old Alyssa LoCasto has been living with the grandparents, John and Frances LoCasto, in Staten Island, N.Y., since Aug. 9 while the courts decided whether they should be granted legal custody.

Juvenile Court Commissioner Patricia Bresee ruled that the baby will remain with her grandparents, but increased the parents’ visitation rights from one hour to six hours a week under supervision of New York social workers.

Gerry Hilliard, the lawyer representing the baby, said the judge’s decision to deny the parents custody was “entirely appropriate . . . in the best interests of the baby.”

The parents, Christina LoCasto, 24, and Louis LoCasto, 26, of Staten Island, were ordered by Bresee to undergo therapy and parenting classes, and the mother must also receive individual therapy.

Whether the parents eventually get custody of their daughter will depend on their progress and cooperation with the court orders, Hilliard said. The mother also faces criminal charges.

Christina LoCasto gave birth to Alyssa July 13 in the locked restroom of a United Airlines DC-10 that was waiting to take off from Newark, N.J., on a flight to San Francisco. She hid the newborn in a cabinet under the sink.

Flight attendants, unaware of the baby, sealed off the restroom because of the mess and the child was not found until a San Francisco cleanup crew heard her cries.

The mother pleaded not guilty to felony child endangerment charges and was freed on $50,000 bail.

Investigators said Louis LoCasto, who was aboard the flight with the couple’s other two daughters, was unaware of his wife’s pregnancy and did not know she had delivered a baby until she was arrested later that night in San Mateo County.