Foetus found on UAE flight to Manila

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DUBAI: A cleaner found a human foetus on an Emirati passenger plane after it landed in Manila, Abu Dhabi's Etihad Airways said on Tuesday.

"Etihad Airways can confirm that a human foetus was discovered on board one of its aircraft at Ninoy Aquino airport in Manila by a member of the airport?s cleaning staff on Monday," the United Arab Emirates carrier said.

"Any media enquiries should be directed to local police," it added in a brief statement.

The Philippine Star newspaper said the six to seven-month lifeless foetus was found in the garbage bin of a toilet on board a plane which flew in from Abu Dhabi.

The foetus was wrapped in a diaper, it said on its website.

Last September, a live baby boy was found in a trash bin in a toilet on a Gulf Air jet shortly after it landed at Manila airport.

The Philippines authorities said at the time they were investigating a Filipina woman passenger, who they said had admitted giving birth to the boy in the toilet while on a long-haul flight from Bahrain.

Filipinos represent a major workforce in the oil-rich Arab states of the Gulf, and foreigners, mostly from Asia, account for more than 80 percent of the UAE population.

Last month, a newborn baby was reportedly found strangled to death and dumped in a bathroom bin at Dubai airport.

Police said they were working with Interpol to hunt an African woman believed to have given birth to the baby in the airport before she dumped the child and flew home.