Taiwanese flight attendants will no longer have to worry about wiping the butt of one obese American passenger after he passed away in Thailand last month.
The man, estimated to weigh around 200 kg (440 lbs), made headlines back in January following a press conference in which traumatized female flight attendants from Taiwanese airline Eva Air recalled how he had forced them to pull down his pants while on the toilet and even wipe his butt for him on a flight from Los Angeles to Taipei.
Later that month, flight attendants were horrified to learn that the passenger had already booked another Eva Air flight for May that would return him through Taipei from Bangkok. The airline later notified the man’s attorney that they would be canceling that reservation, eventually leading to the discovery that he had died in March on the Thai island of Ko Samui from “an illness.” Eva Air said that it was now working with the man’s family members to refund the cost of the ticket.
During the fateful January 19th trip, flight attendants say that the man asked them to help him to the bathroom, explaining that he recently had surgery on his hand. Once inside the toilet, he directed the all-female crew to pull down his pants and tried to insist on leaving the door open while he did his business.
Finally, he called on them to come inside and wipe his ass for him, threatening to stay in the bathroom for the entire flight if they would not. Feeling as if she had no choice, one flight attendant put on three layers of surgical gloves and started wiping. As she did so, the man allegedly started moaning in pleasure and encouraging her, “deeper, deeper!” He then claimed that she hadn’t done a good enough job and made her wipe three more times before he was satisfied.
Afterward, the flight attendant wrote in an Instagram post that she locked herself inside the bathroom, crying and vomiting, unable to wash away the stench of the man’s shit. In the post, she called on EVA Air to better protect its employees, hire more male flight attendants, and prevent similar physically-challenged passengers from boarding unattended in the future. The later press conference was held by the Taoyuan Flight Attendants Union for these same reasons, arguing that flight attendants work under an unfair culture where they are expected to meet every customer demand, no matter how absurd or demeaning.
It was later revealed that the man was actually a frequent Eva Air flyer, traveling with the airline 20 times in the past, with a history of questionable behavior. The airline confirmed that he had also requested flight attendants to wipe his butt during a flight from Taipei to Bangkok in May 2018, but that crew members had refused that request. On other flights, he asked flight attendants to “help clean his urine bottle,” a request which was acceded to “out of the spirit of service” and spilled soda and yogurt on himself during a meal which crew members helped to clean up.
Eva Air denied rumors that he had once taken a dump at his seat.
