An EVA Air flight attendant claims she was left traumatized after following through on an obese passenger's excessive requests over the weekend.
Citing reports from multiple Taiwan media outlets, Taiwan English News reported that the female flight attendant said the "old, white, American man weighing around 200 kilograms (440 pounds)" made unreasonable requests of the all-female flight attendant cabin crew on Saturday's flight from Los Angeles to Taipei.
The wheelchair-bound passenger allegedly asked to be moved to a row with three available seats before requesting assistance to go to the bathroom.
The flight attendant said the man claimed he couldn't use his right hand because he was recovering from surgery and later complained that the economy toilet was too small. "It was the beginning of a nightmare," the flight attendant wrote.
The man was escorted to the business class toilet but allegedly pressed the emergency assistance button shortly after. "With his underwear only half pulled down, he asked the flight attendant to help him to pull his underwear down," Taiwan English News reported.
"The flight attendant at first refused, but the man, sitting on the toilet with his legs open and genitals exposed, insisted, and pleaded that he could not complete his ablutions with his underwear only half-down."
The flight attendant said she used a blanket to cover the man's groin area and applied surgical gloves before helping him with his underwear. The passenger then requested that the bathroom door be left open before asking the flight attendant to wipe him.
"This is really too much. The cabin crew are all female and we don't have a male team member. No one can help you," she said.
With the disturbance beginning to affect other passengers, the flight attendant said she put on three pairs of gloves and wiped the man. Afterward, she said she went into a toilet cubicle, vomited and cried.
The flight attendant said she documented her experience in an effort to encourage the airline to protect its employees, recruit more male flight attendants and prevent such passengers from boarding unattended in the future.
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