What happens when nuts are served on a flight with passengers who have a severe allergy to such nuts? In the case of one Emirates flight, the crew suggested the allergic passengers take refuge…in the lavatory…for seven hours.
Shannen and Sundeep Sahota were flying from Birmingham to Dubai. Both have deadly nut allergies. Shannen claims to have alerted Emirates no less than three times about their nut allergy (at time of booking, check-in, and when boarding). But when onboard meal service commenced on their flight, the chicken biryani course contained fried cashews. The Sahotas were horrified.
When alerted, the Sahotas claim the cabin crew showed indifference and the cabin supervisor insulted them by suggesting they sit in the lavatory for seven hours. Sundeep told the Mirror,
We were stunned when a supervisor told us ‘one way round it’ was for us to spend the flight in the cabin loo.
Yet the crew ended up giving up two sections of their crew rest seats (in the very rear of economy class) for the Sahatos to spend the remainder of the flight in. They allegedly covered themselves with blankets to prevent ingestion of airborne nut particles.
Here’s a video interview courtesy of the Birmingham Mail:
In response to this issue, Emirates stated it could not guarantee nut-free flights, but added:
We’re very sorry to hear about Ms Sahota’s complaint…
When alerted during the flight, our crew tried their best to offer Ms Sahota and her brother alternative locations in an open space in back of the aircraft cabin to minimise their proximity to other passengers who may be consuming meals with nuts.
And frankly, I think that is correct.
CONCLUSION
Nut allergies are a very difficult thing to contend with–I am just so thankful I do not have that allergy. On the Dubai to Singapore connection, the Shahotas were placed in the front row of the economy class cabin and watched after by crew. Nuts were still served, though. Should 500 passengers be inconvenienced for one or two with severe allergies? Should Emirates refuse to serve nuts on an A380 with even one allergic passenger? That’s hard to say. What do you think? Ultimately, I’d rather go without nuts than see someone hurt.
image: Garrett Ziegler / WikiMeida Commons // H/T: Jeff Edwards @Flyertalk
I think it is a really tricky situation for airlines to manage. It’s easier to blame airlines like Southwest for handing out peanuts when they have other options if someone with a peanut allergy is onboard. They are also at the mercy of the caterer, especially in outstations, to be able to provide 2 meals for 500 people without peanuts if requested and certainly will cost quite a bit of money or will result in potentially bland food options.
+1
While I no doubt that people with nut allegies who actually ingest nuts will have a reaction, frankly I call bs on most of the people who freak out about being on an airplane. The notion that someone may be eating a product with nuts in it will somehow cause the person with said claimed allergy to go into some sort of crazed reaction is more often than not bogus. Can it happen? Sure. But unless the person with the allergy lives in a bubble, they will be exposed to nut residue in pretty much every type of public encounter whether that is a plane, a restaurant, train/subway, etc. It’s amazing how the overzealous precautions only seem to manifest themselves when its known that nuts will be served, yet somehow if nuts are served and the said individual isn’t aware….amazingly no reaction occurs.
Case in point…was flying an Alaska/Skywest flight on an E-175. An annoucement, after the plane was boarded, was made that requested passengers to refrain from eating any products containing nuts because someone on board had a severe allergy. Now it was pretty ridiculous that this announcement was made after boarding because people may have assumed they could eat a peanut butter sandwich they brought with them and now they were left with nothing. Perhaps if the announcement was made pre-boarding, people could have bought an alternative option in the terminal. Ok so seated in F, I expected that no nuts would be served before the meal….well guess what, they were. And *amazingly* we didn’t divert, there were no pages over the PA for a doctor, no fuss was made. Hmm…but I thought the mere presence of nuts/nut dust circulated into the cabin or in the vicinty would cause anaphylaxis? And on yet another flight I was traveling with my kids and brought them peanut butter sandwiches to eat. As soon as I sat down, the family behind me told me that if my kids were going to eat peanut butter they needed to move since their kid had an allergy. Well guess what…that kid and overzealous mom were asleep and I pulled out that peanut butter sandwich. And wouldn’t you know it….nothing happened. So yes I’m sure if they ingest peanuts they will go into anaphylaxis, but people seem to become snowflakes when even a picture of a nut in a magazine is shown to them.
I think you’re missing the point completely. Yes some people can have reactions to peanut particles being in the air, but other people could also have a reaction from ingesting even the smallest amount of peanut. If your kids eat a peanut butter sandwich and still have the residue on their hands which I could then touch and then touch my mouth I am likely to go into anaphylactic shock. The difference from normal day life is you’re thousands of miles in the air and it’s likely to take a while to make an emergency landing. I’m not sure how much you know about anaphylaxis but with myself every reaction I’ve had has been worse and the last resulted with me being in hospital with a defibrillator next to me. And yes I’ve got an epipen which is likely to bide me some time, but it’s a sad state of affairs that I would be forced to use that because people are unable to go a few hours in the air without consuming nuts.
Wow you are an arsehole!
You happily put a child’s life at risk for your own/ your child’s need to eat a certain food!
C-U-N-T move!
You probably also don’t vaccinate ….
What a shit human you are!
Argosy314
Consider yourself lucky that nothing happened. You are not a doctor. You are not educated in food allergic reactions. BTW, if a reaction had occurred the child would have been ill, the plane for an emergency landing has to dump most of its fuel and everyones inconvenienced. How would you like being sued for the lost fuel, the changed flights for passengers? Probably- not so much. Try and be a bit more empathetic and as food allergies can occur at any age to anyone, you might be the next person with one.
If they really want a “nut-free” flight, should they not contact the airline at least say, a week ahead? How will an airline and caterer make sure there are no nuts in 1500 or so meals if they are just informed of the “severe allergy” during check in?
In defense of the passengers, they claim to have alerted Emirates at time of booking.
I have no idea, but those with severe nut allergies – can they have a reaction from smelling the nuts, i.e. airborne nut powder? Or do they have to ingest?
I believe some suffer allergic reactions due to airborne nut powder.
While I sympathize with people who have nut allergies I think it’s unfair to penalize all passengers so they can’t have anything with nuts. Maybe we need a nut-free section at the back?
LOL, like in the old days..where you have the smoking area at the backs rows..needless to say the whole air circulates through the entire cabin!
Hmmmm. Well I’d probably have sat in the loo myself if I was that worried – probably safest.
I’m not sure what the issue is here. The staff dealt with the issue, the siblings did not suffer any negative reaction. They went on to fly other legs with Emirates and had no problems. I appreciate that sitting in an aluminium tube with recycled air is likely to exacerbate some situations but do these people never leave their homes, use public transport etc.? Do they not have jobs or visit doctors’ surgeries where people might unexpectedly pull out a bag of peanuts?
I think these nut allergies are a little over reactive!!They could take some benadryl(as i did when i woman and her fluffy cat sat next to me and i did not want to inconvenience anyone with changing seats) and keep their EPI pen nearby!!!I was on a flight and nut allergy was announced..the snack basket was passed and guess what a granola bar was in it!! I said to the FA you know these have nuts in them??? She grabbed it back and left with the basket!!!
Shouldn’t severe allergy sufferers have their medication on hand anyway?
Symphathy to the siblings..but they should be prepared and have their meds or whatever with them..they can not take for granted that the rest of the pax and crew have to dance on their rhythm!
How come these peanuts or nuts allergies are starting to come out? What did those people in the past do when flying? They took their meds with them!
That is why I love to have my own space or suites like EK..I can eat or do what I want to do without harassing other pax!