Fetus Found In Plane Bathroom At LaGuardia Airport

A dead fetus was discovered at LaGuardia Airport this morning, in the bathroom of a plane that arrived Monday night from Charlotte, North Carolina. According to NBC 4 New York, a cleaning crew found the fetus on American Airlines flight 1942, which departed Charlotte at 8:46 p.m. on Monday and landed in New York at 10:44 p.m. The crew only encountered the fetus Tuesday morning, around 7:30 a.m., and the airline is now deferring all inquiries to the Port Authority police. The airline also warned of possible delays this morning.

American Airlines released a preliminary statement: "As we continue to learn more about this tragic and sensitive situation, we are actively cooperating with law enforcement in its investigation."

We have reached out to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey for further details, and will update when we hear back.

The discovery comes just two days after tourists pulled an approximately eight-month-old boy out of the East River. On Sunday afternoon, a man visiting from Oklahoma reportedly waded into the water near South Street and Dover Street around 4 p.m., after he and his family spotted a small head and legs floating in the water. They flagged down police, who attempted CPR on the baby, to no avail. He was subsequently pronounced dead at New York Downtown Hospital.

Authorities have not yet located the boy's parents, but according to the Post, two witnesses saw a woman carrying a basket on the Brooklyn Bridge before the baby was spotted in the river. The Officer of Chief Medical Examiner has yet to pinpoint the cause of death—whether the baby drowned in the river, or whether he was dead before he reached the water—but no drowned adults have been found in the vicinity, as is reportedly typical in cases like these. Neither parents nor guardians have come forward to identify the boy, leaving police to look for clues that often prove particularly hard to find in investigations involving infants, who don't have fingerprints.

On Tuesday morning, the city medical examiner was en route to LaGuardia. We will update as more information becomes available.