EVA Airlines flight attendants praised for breaking up a fistfight in the sky

By Lilit Marcus and Wayne Chang, CNN

(CNN) — Three flight attendants are winning praise for successfully defusing a physical fight between two passengers on board an EVA Air flight.

In a statement to CNN, the airline said the scuffle began when a passenger was reportedly coughing and the man next to him tried to move into another seat to get away. However, the man’s attempt to swap seats didn’t work, as the seat he chose already belonged to another male passenger. Those two men then got into an argument over the seat, which the airline said turned physical.

That’s when three female flight attendants stepped in to handle the situation, says EVA.

Flight BR08 was about three hours into its 12-hour journey from Taipei to San Francisco on Wednesday, May 8 when the incident took place. EVA, which is based in Taiwan, told CNN that the two brawling passengers were both foreigners but did not specify their countries of origin.

Thanks to the quick actions of these flight attendants, with assistance from some concerned passengers, the airline said the two men were separated from each other and the rest of the flight continued as scheduled, successfully landing in San Francisco on time.

“The company has always adopted a zero-tolerance policy towards incidents of passenger nuisance,” EVA told CNN in the statement.

“The company will provide appropriate rewards to [the three cabin crew members] later on.”

The plane’s captain contacted San Francisco police mid-flight, and the two combative passengers were taken in for questioning on arrival, according to EVA.

This isn’t the first time that an in-air incident on EVA made headlines. In 2019, an obese male passenger reportedly forced female flight attendants to help him undress, use the bathroom and clean him afterward, saying he was physically unable to do so himself.

Following the incident, EVA publicly expressed its “sincere gratitude” to its employees and vowed to look into the incident further.

That same year, EVA reversed its policy of only hiring women as flight attendants and said it would hire men as cabin crew members too.

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