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I recently saw an article1 that reports an astonishing situation: A mother forgot her baby at the airport, and boarded an international flight (bound for Malaysia) alone. The passenger realized that she had forgotten about her baby after they had already taken off, and, according to the article, "refuses to continue the flight", forcing the pilots to land. My question is mainly not about the pilot actions or aviation part, but the legal consequences the mother will face. Will she be charged with child abandonment? Does this situation constitute a parental neglect offense? Leaving a baby at the terminal is pretty dangerous, after all. I'm asking according to both United States and EU laws. Although this happened in Saudi Arabia, where laws may be different than the EU or United States, for the context of this question let's assume the same thing happened in the US or EU countries. What will happen? What legal consequences will the mother face? If not, why not? I'll appreciate any help. Thanks in advance!

1: There are many, many more articles that mention such events. I digged-up tons of articles, news reports, and blogs on this and similar cases: another article reporting the same incident, and another more recent incident in which the couple was caught before boarding, gulf news article, cafemom.com/parenting, couple intentionally leaves behind baby at airport, 5 year-old left behind at airport (this one isn't as crazy, since the parents seemed to have noticed before they boarded the plane.).

Luke L
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No to criminal charges

There are a number of crimes specifically related to the care of children in the NSW Crimes Act 1900 and similar provisions exist in all other jurisdictions.

However, all of them require intent or recklessness or allow for a reasonable excuse defence. Even were the other elements of the crimes made out, and that is by no means certain, a person who "forgot" may be negligent, but they are not reckless and likely have a reasonable excuse. Bearing in mind it is for the prosecution to prove what the defendant's state of mind was from the extrinsic evidence available. In circumstances where the person who raised the alarm was the defendant, it's going to be very hard to prove more than negligence.

Cases, where criminality has been engaged have involved knowingly leaving children in cars while paying for petrol, buying groceries or, egregiously, gambling. Now, we're talking recklessness.

Maybe to child protection intervention

Criminality aside, this event may be enough to trigger at least an investigation by the relevant child protection agency. The criteria there is the best interests of the child and whether state intervention is necessary to ensure health and welfare.

Dale M
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