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A family was barred from a flight due to an incident related to a peanut allergy.
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The cabin crew refused to ask passengers not to eat nuts, so the family made their own announcement.
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The refusal of airlines to provide information about nut allergies is common and frustrating for many.
According to multiple reports, a family was thrown off a plane for staging an announcement about one of their family members’ peanut allergy.
According to MailOnline, Georgie Palmer was flying with her husband and two daughters on SunExpress from London to Dalaman in Turkey on May 21 when the argument broke out.
Palmer’s daughter Rosie suffers from a severe peanut allergy that can lead to a fatal anaphylactic reaction, she told the outlet.
But the flight crew refused to make an announcement telling other passengers not to eat peanuts. According to an Instagram post seen by MailOnline, Palmer took matters into his own hands.
“We politely asked the passengers at the front of the plane to share our request,” she wrote. “Row by row, as quickly as a carefully laid line of dominoes, each passenger turned around and politely asked the row behind them to please refrain from eating nuts during the flight.”
She added that none of the passengers seemed to mind.
But, she told the newspaper, the pilot became angry. He started yelling at them and eventually ordered them to leave. The family then spent about $6,400 booking alternative flights and hotels, she said.
In a statement to the Mail, a SunExpress spokesperson said the airline had not made such announcements because it “cannot guarantee an allergen-free environment on our flights.”
Passengers must notify the airline of any special requirements 48 hours in advance, the spokesperson said in a statement to Business Insider. They said Palmer did not do that.
Palmer responded to the BBC saying she had tried to make contact but had not reached anyone.
The airline also told the Mail that Palmer’s husband Nick Sollom had been “aggressive” towards the crew and “attempted to gain access to the cockpit”.
Palmer told the BBC that the claim was “absolute nonsense”.
Speaking to the Mail, Sollom said he knocked on the cockpit door to discuss the situation with the pilot, but denied being aggressive.
In response to these denials, the airline’s spokesperson told BI that they “stand by their statements in this regard.”
The incident highlights the amount of planning that frequent flyers with allergies have to do, as only a handful of major airlines – including British Airways, Air Canada, Southwest, Delta and JetBlue – make such precautions a standard part of their policies.
A lawyer for people with severe allergies said the blame lies with SunExpress.
Nadim Ednan-Laperouse, co-founder of the Natasha Allergy Research Foundation, demanded in a Facebook post that SunExpress should reconsider its policies “immediately”.
“Food allergies are a disease, not a lifestyle choice, and this family’s experience on board an aircraft is shocking and unacceptable,” he said.
“Unfortunately, this is not an isolated case,” he added.
It’s true – SunExpress is far from the only airline that has refused to provide a potentially life-saving warning about allergies.
Passengers of United and Lufthansa have described unpleasant experiences in this context.
In August, a passenger with allergies had to spend $185 to buy her flight’s entire supply of peanuts.
Read the original article on Business Insider
