Woman Who Abandoned Baby on Jet Gets 6 Months

A woman who abandoned her newborn daughter under the lavatory sink of a jetliner bound from Newark, N.J., to San Francisco last year was sentenced Wednesday to six months in jail.

Christina LoCasto, 25, of New York City broke into tears when San Mateo County Superior Court Judge Margaret Kemp turned down a plea from LoCasto’s attorney for a lesser punishment. The judge said that although LoCasto had no criminal record, her actions were irresponsible and could have led to her child’s death.

LoCasto pleaded no contest on May 25 to one count of felony child endangerment.

As part of a plea bargain, LoCasto was given the jail term plus three years’ probation and fines of about $700. She could have served up to six years if given the maximum sentence.

LoCasto, who is expecting a fourth child in November, asked that she serve her time in a county jail close to her home on Staten Island. Authorities were considering the request.

According to the prosecution, Christina LoCasto had become pregnant and, because of fears that her husband would disapprove, kept the news secret. On July 13, 1988, the LoCasto family, including two older daughters, boarded a United Air Lines flight at Newark Airport, heading for a vacation in California. Before the DC-10 took off, LoCasto secretly gave birth, stuffed the baby under a lavatory sink and returned to her seat. Flight attendants closed off the restroom because they believed that someone had gotten ill.

Shortly after the plane landed at San Francisco International Airport, members of a cleaning crew that went aboard heard a noise and discovered the infant in a pile of blood-soaked towels.

“The airline worker just happened to hear a ‘squeak-squeak,’ ” San Mateo County Assistant Dist. Atty. Steven Wagstaffe said. “If he hadn’t heard that, that baby would have died.”

LoCasto turned herself in the next day. The child, named Alyssa, is now in the custody of her paternal grandparents on Staten Island.

Although LoCasto refused to comment publicly on her reasons for deserting the child, her husband has said the couple were having marital problems at the time. Wagstaffe said he believes that these problems caused LoCasto to fear telling her husband about the pregnancy.

“I still don’t know why she did this,” he said. “I guess she decided her life with her husband outweighed that of her child.” Her attorney, Dick Bennett, refused to comment, saying LoCasto wanted to keep the details of the situation private.

“She’s gained a great amount of self-confidence and parenting skills since that time,” Bennett said. Both LoCastos have been seeing counselors since last year’s incident, and have begun proceedings to regain custody of Alyssa, which could come within the next six weeks, he said.