The US Department of Transportation (DOT) has asked EVA Airways to respond to consumers’ concerns after one of its flight attendants threatened to add “extras” to a pilot’s food, the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) said yesterday.
The aviation authority said that the airline informed it of the notice from the DOT’s Aviation Consumer Protection Division last week.
EVA offers flights to the US, so the division asked the airline to give an official explanation after one of its flight attendants wrote in a Line group chat that she would add “extra” ingredients to one of the pilots’ meals, because he opposed the flight attendants’ strike that ended on July 9, the CAA said.
The CAA said it has asked the airline to properly respond to the division’s request so that its flights to the US can operate normally.
It would investigate whether the flight attendant had infringed civil aviation regulations if prosecutors choose not to press charges, the CAA said.
The flight attendant, Kuo Chih-yen (郭芷嫣), also threatened to make life difficult for flight attendants who quit in the middle of the strike.
Kuo released a statement saying that what she said in the chat was only a joke and that she had no intention of bullying anyone.
The airline yesterday said that it reported Kuo to the police on July 9, as she could have severely disrupted enforcement of the airline’s aviation safety procedures.
It also said that its personnel evaluation committee met on July 11 and ruled that Kuo should be dismissed immediately for breaching cabin crew management regulations.
Not only could Kuo have hurt other employees, but her behavior could have been in contravention of the Civil Aviation Act (民用航空法) and the Criminal Code, the airline added.
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