A passenger who had demanded that EVA Air flight attendants remove his pants and wipe his behind while using the toilet passed away last month, the airline said on Wednesday.
The incident was exposed at a news conference on Jan. 21, when one of the flight attendants tearfully described what had happened on the flight from Los Angeles to Taipei on Jan. 19.
The passenger had demanded that flight attendants assist him because his right hand had been injured, she said.
After the news conference, netizens discovered that the man had been scheduled to fly with EVA again next month.
The airline on Feb. 1 said that it would inform the passenger that it would not let him board the flight.
However, when EVA tried to contact the passenger to inform him about the decision, it was told that he had died of personal illness on Thailand’s Ko Samui Island at the beginning of last month, the airline told a news conference.
The airline said that it had worked with the passenger’s family members to cancel his tickets.
As the flight attendant was diagnosed with acute stress disorder after the incident, the airline said that it had granted her occupational sick leave following approval from the Bureau of Labor Insurance.
On Feb. 19, the Taoyuan Department of Labor fined the airline NT$60,000 for failing to protect its employees from physical and mental harm caused by others while executing their duties.
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