Taiwan airline apologises for asking dead flight attendant for paperwork

A Taiwanese airline has apologized for requesting papers from a deceased employee, in the latest development in a case that has sparked widespread outrage.

The 34-year-old Eva Air flight attendant, nicknamed Sun, died earlier this month after feeling unwell during the flight.

Many online speculated that she was exhausted.

Taiwanese authorities and Eva Air are investigating her death, focusing on whether she was denied medical assistance or discouraged from taking sick leave.

Ms. Sun reportedly felt ill on September 24 during a flight from Milan to Eva Air’s base in Taoyuan City in Taiwan.

She was hospitalized upon arrival and eventually died on October 8.

Anonymous social media users claiming to be her colleagues claimed Ms Sun was forced to continue working even when she felt unwell.

China Medical University Hospital in Taichung, where she died, has not officially revealed her cause of death.

Taiwan’s Central News Agency (CNA) reported that flight records in the past six months showed Ms. Sun had flown an average of 75 hours per month, which is within regulatory limits. She joined the airline in 2016.

According to Ms. Sun’s family, days after her death, her phone received a text message from an Eva Air representative requesting documents proving that Ms. Sun had applied for leave in late September, the period during which she was in the hospital.

The representative asked her to send a copy of her leave documents. The family responded to the text with a copy of Ms. Sun’s death certificate.

Senior company officials said at a press conference on Friday that the text message was “an error by an internal employee” and that they had personally apologized to Ms. Sun’s family for the error.

At the press conference on Friday, EVA Aviation Chairman Sun Chia-ming said, “Mrs. Sun’s passing is a pain in our hearts forever.”

“We will conduct the investigation [into her death] “With the most responsible attitude,” he said.

Since 2013, Eva Air has been fined seven times, mostly for offenses related to its employees working overtime, CNA said.