EVA Airways today said it would overhaul its emergency procedures and performance evaluation system by the end of the year, following the death of a flight attendant earlier this month who continued to work despite being ill.
The airline highlighted four major issues found in its ongoing investigation into the death of a 34-year-old flight attendant surnamed Sun (孫) on Oct. 10 after returning on a flight from Milan, Italy.
Despite Sun showing clear signs of illness while on duty, the chief flight attendant failed to properly respond to the situation, onboard medical resources were not utilized quickly enough, the captain and operations center were not informed as required by protocol and crew members did not fully understand their rights, EVA said.
Photo: CNA
As a result of the company’s emergency procedures not being properly followed, Sun did not receive medical support in a timely manner, the airline said.
The Ministry of Labor and Taoyuan Department of Labor are also conducting an ongoing investigation and interviewing the flight’s other crew members.
EVA in its report released today said it provides all crew members with overseas medical insurance and covers the cost of using an ambulance at airports.
However, it found that crew members did not fully understand these rights, which hindered the company’s emergency procedures and contributed to errors in decisionmaking during the crisis, the airline said.
Some crew members said they did not know how to contact the station manager at overseas locations, it said.
To improve this shortcoming, the airline said it plans to improve crew members’ knowledge of overseas contacts and medical resources by creating a platform to make this information publicly accessible, so that the crew can quickly access support during both duty and rest periods.
During the flight, Sun initially declined colleagues’ suggestions to rest out of a sense of responsibility and desire not to trouble them, the airline said.
Although the chief flight attendant later reduced Sun’s workload, she still did not get adequate rest on the return flight, it said.
EVA said it plans to strengthen procedures allowing chief and deputy chief flight attendants to relieve crew members who are unfit for duty due to illness or other emergency situations.
Once they determine a crew member should not continue working, they should promptly relieve them from duty, inform the operations center and arrange for them to return to Taiwan as a passenger, it said.
In addition, the airline said it would provide additional pay to other crew members on the flight to ease any burden or guilt felt by the ill crew member.
It is also considering increasing the flexibility for flight attendants to take sick leave within the performance evaluation system, it added.
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