A 12-year-old girl with a nut allergy and her family were removed from a plane at Gatwick Airport after the captain refused to ask passengers not to eat nuts.
Incident of Removal from the Flight
Nick Mollom, 48, told The Telegraph that he, his wife, and their two children were removed from a SunExpress flight bound for Turkey after requesting that the crew consider his daughter Rosie’s allergy during the 3.5-hour journey. The family had to book a last-minute reservation with another airline and rearrange their accommodation.
Mollom explained that he found no way to inform the airline about Rosie’s allergy during the flight booking process and was advised by the SunExpress check-in desk at Gatwick to inform the cabin crew. However, when he requested the crew to make an announcement asking other passengers not to consume nuts, the request was denied. The captain stated that making such an announcement was against company policy.
Communication with Pilot and Cabin Crew
Mollom said that the cabin crew had to communicate with passengers to request they refrain from eating nuts. When the captain noticed the crew interacting with the passengers, he decided to have the family removed from the flight.
Rosie felt she was treated as if she had done something wrong simply because of her allergy. Mollom tried to speak with the captain but was ignored when he knocked on the cockpit door twice.
SunExpress’s Statement
A SunExpress spokesperson stated that the safety of passengers is taken very seriously and that they cannot guarantee an allergen-free environment on their flights. They mentioned that the insistence on passengers not consuming nuts led the captain to decide that it was safest for the family not to travel on that flight.
Allergy Foundation’s Response
Nadim Ednan-Laperouse, a co-founder of the Natasha Allergy Research Foundation, described SunExpress’s actions as shocking and unacceptable. He emphasized that airlines need to reassess how they communicate with customers who have food allergies and make their policies clear on their websites.
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