A 12-year-old girl with a peanut allergy was kicked off a flight at Gatwick Airport with her family after the captain refused to ask passengers not to eat nuts for their safety.
Nick Mollom, 48, told The Telegraph that he, his wife and their two children were kicked off a SunExpress flight after asking the crew to take his 12-year-old daughter’s allergies into account on a 3-and-a-half-hour journey to Turkey.
He said the family have now lost almost £5,000 by having to make last-minute bookings with another airline and rearrange their accommodation.
Speaking from Dalaman, Turkey, Mollom said: “It is simply unbelievable that in 2024 this could happen. Simply incredible.”
The incident happened on Tuesday night as the family tried to board a SunExpress flight to Dalaman, on Turkey’s southwest coast.
Rosie, the Molloms’ 12-year-old daughter, has a peanut allergy. She cannot be near the nuts in case she suffers a type of allergic reaction known as anaphylactic shock.
Anaphylaxis is cited as a possible cause of death for 20 to 40 people each year, according to the British Society of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.
Cabin crew ‘didn’t really care’
Mollom said the family’s problems began when he booked the flight, saying he couldn’t find any way to notify the airline about Rosie’s allergy.
Upon arriving at Gatwick, Mollom said the SunExpress check-in desk told him to inform the cabin crew. The SunExpress website says, on the in-flight menu page: “Once on board, please inform our cabin crew of your allergies.”
But cabin crew, Mollom said, “didn’t really care” when he requested an announcement be made to ask other passengers not to eat nuts.
“They just said the captain refused to do it. And he won’t make any kind of announcement. It is not his or the company’s policy to do so.”
The captain, the family claims, locked himself in the cabin and gave orders to the cabin crew.
“They kept trying to say the captain wasn’t going to discuss it, the matter was closed,” Mollom said.
“We then said, ‘Okay, okay. It’s not a big plane. There is no mass of passengers here. We can just kindly tell people what’s going on.
“Georgie, my wife spoke in the first two rows. It was amazing… a couple who were sitting behind us, originally in the middle of the plane. They overheard our conversation with the cabin crew who showed up, then went to the back of the plane and started telling people what was going on.
“Everyone’s attitude was great – ‘of course, no problem’.
“But the captain then realized that the communication had been made to other passengers. And he just said, okay, ‘Take your bags off, get out.’
“Our flight was supposed to leave at nine and I think everyone arrived at 8:45 pm. But my wife and I were up front saying, ‘ok, well, why can’t you make this announcement’ and so I think tensions were rising inside the booth because we weren’t seated.
“We hadn’t just accepted the fact that our daughter would have to sit there and hope no one served peanuts and ate them, or opened peanut products.
“They just said, you have to go, you have to go.”
‘Shocking and unacceptable’
Rosie, who is still processing the humiliation of being escorted off the flight and out of the terminal, said: “I was treated like I had done something wrong by the crew just because I had allergies.”
Mr Mollom decided to try and speak to the captain before leaving the plane.
“I needed him to look me in the eye and tell me why we have to leave because my daughter has allergies,” he continued, explaining that he knocked twice on the cabin door, “and then people got really angry and told me that I you shouldn’t do that… ‘you can’t bother the captain’.
“I said very politely, well, he’s definitely disturbing us.”
A SunExpress spokesperson said the airline takes the safety of its passengers “very seriously”.
“Shortly after boarding our flight from London Gatwick, Mr Sollom raised concerns about a member of his family group having a severe peanut allergy and requested an announcement to other passengers.
“We avoid making these types of announcements because, like many other airlines, we cannot guarantee an allergen-free environment on our flights, nor prevent other passengers from bringing food containing allergens on board.
“Due to the passenger’s insistent behavior towards others on board that they should not consume nuts, the captain decided it would be safer if the family did not travel on our flight.”
The spokesperson alleged that Mollom “knocked” on the cabin door to try to gain access to the flight deck, something he vehemently denies.
Nadim Ednan-Laperouse, OBE, co-founder of The Natasha Allergy Research Foundation, the UK food allergy charity, said SunExpress’s actions were “shocking and unacceptable”.
His daughter Natasha died in 2016 after eating a baguette on a flight which contained sesame seeds that were not marked on the label, causing a fatal allergic reaction.
“Food allergies are an illness, not a lifestyle choice,” he told The Telegraph.
“Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident. We often hear from families with food allergies who tell us horror stories about air travel. This is worrying as the world is becoming increasingly allergic.
“The airline should immediately re-evaluate the way it interacts with customers with food allergies and make its policies clear on its website,” added Ednan-Laperouse.
SunExpress said it is reviewing “the information provided during our booking process to ensure the most effective solutions for passengers with allergies.”
Recalling how an airport staff member who helped the Molloms off the flight told him about a similar incident in which a passenger suffered a reaction and caused the flight to be diverted for medical help, Mr Mollom sighed: “Are you damned if he does and damned. if you don’t.”
Figures from the Food Standards Agency show there are now 2.4 million adults in the UK with a diagnosed food allergy.
A recent medical trial found that giving children small amounts of peanuts and milk to treat allergies can help reduce the severity of reactions, potentially helping to save lives.
