New Zealand ? New Zealand police charged a woman with abandonment on Wednesday after she secretly gave birth aboard an international flight and dumped the newborn in a garbage can in the plane’s bathroom.

Soon after the 29-year-old Samoan mother walked off a Pacific Blue flight from Samoa to Auckland last Thursday, cleaners found a newborn girl still alive amid bloodied paper towels in a toilet trash can.

Police Detective Inspector Mark Gutry said the woman was charged with child abandonment, which carries a maximum sentence of seven years in prison, and child assault.

The mother could also face a fine of up to $57,000 and another seven years in prison for allegedly failing to reveal information about her pregnancy, a violation of the country’s Immigration Act.