A 25-year-old Taiwanese man yesterday morning died suddenly on an EVA Airways (長榮航空) flight to Jakarta, the Taiwanese airline said.
EVA officials said the flight took off from Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport at 9:05am and the male passenger lost consciousness at about 11am.
Flight attendants asked for assistance from any medical professionals on board, the company said, adding that a doctor attempted to resuscitate the man using a defibrillator.
The pilots were given emergency landing clearance at Kota Kinabalu International Airport in Sabah, Malaysia, but as the aircraft began its descent the doctor told the cabin crew that resuscitation attempts had failed.
The flight was redirected to Jakarta, EVA said.
The company said that it contacted the Taipei Trade and Economic Office in Jakarta prior to landing at 13:28pm, adding that it would work with the office to assist the deceased passenger’s family members.
In other news, the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) suffered another setback to amendments to the Civil Aviation Act (民用航空法) regarding regulations of drones.
Lawmakers on the legislature’s Transportation Committee said that local governments would have problems regulating unmanned aerial vehicles weighing less than 15kg.
Based on amendments proposed by the CAA, drones weighing more than 15kg would be regulated by the central government, whereas those weighing less than 15kg would be managed by local governments.
Ministry of Transportation and Communications Deputy Minister Wu Meng-feng (吳盟分) said that both the central government and local governments need to coordinate in order to better regulate drones, regardless of the standards to be used to divide responsability in the regulations.
Lawmakers on the committee said that regulations regarding drones should be stipulated by the CAA.
Chinese Nationalist Party Legislator Lo Shu-lei (羅淑蕾), who presided over yesterday’s meeting, said that the committee rescheduled a review until after the central government and local governments had completed negotiations on drone regulations.
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