Man dies unnoticed in airport bathroom
On October 29th, 2018, Ming Kou Chan was seen on San Francisco International Airport security video walking into the bathroom inside the Cathay Pacific first class lounge before a planned flight to Hong Kong. He never emerged.

17 hours and 20 minutes later, someone found Chan unresponsive inside the swanky Italian marble-lined bathroom.

"From the airport's perspective-we typically to leave it up to the airlines to manage the situation whenever the passengers don't actually board the flight," said Malcolm Yeung of the airport commission.

Chan's autopsy report from the San Mateo County coroner shows multiple rib fractures due to CPR, but after 17 hours, the attempts to revive him were futile. Chan was declared dead.


The report shows that Chan had coronary atherosclerosis, or clogged arteries in his heart. The report still doesn't explain why he languished on the floor for nearly a day before someone found him.

In a statement, Cathay Pacific did not explain why no one discovered Chan. "Out of respect for the parties involved, we will not be commenting on the specifics of the incident."

SFO spokesperson Doug Yakel says the first class lounge is under direct control of Cathay Pacific-the airport is not responsible for that part of the terminal.

Chan was a well-respected East Asian scholar who had ties to Stanford.