by A 12-year-old girl with a peanut allergy was thrown off a flight at Gatwick Airport with her family after the captain refused to ask passengers not to eat nuts for her safety.
Nick Sollom, 48, told the Telegraph that he, his wife and their two children were kicked off a SunExpress flight after asking the allergic crew to include his 12-year-old daughter on a 3½-hour journey to the Turkey.
He said the family are now almost £5,000 out of pocket due to having to make last minute bookings with another airline and rearrange their accommodation.
Speaking from Dalaman, Turkey, Mr Sollom said: “It’s unbelievable that this can happen in 2024. Just amazing.”
The incident happened on Tuesday night as the family tried to board a SunExpress flight to Dalaman, on Turkey’s southwest coast.
Rosie, the Solloms’ 12-year-old daughter, has a peanut allergy. She can’t be near the nuts for fear of suffering an allergic reaction called anaphylactic shock.
Anaphylaxis is cited as the cause of death for between 20 and 40 people each year, according to the British Society of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.
‘Cabin crew didn’t care’
Mr Sollom said the family’s problems began when he booked the flight, saying he could find no way to inform the airline of Rosie’s allergy.
When he arrived at Gatwick, Mr Sollom said the SunExpress check-in desk told him to inform the cabin crew. The SunExpress website, on its on-board menu page, says: “Once on board, inform our cabin crew of your allergies.”
But the cabin crew, Mr Sollom, claimed they “were not too concerned” when he asked for an announcement asking other passengers not to eat nuts.
“They said the captain refused to do this. And he won’t make any kind of announcement. It is not his or the company’s policy to do this.”
The captain claims the family, locked himself in the hole and issued orders through the cabin crew.
“They kept trying to say the captain wouldn’t come out and discuss this, the matter was closed,” Mr Sollom said.
Mr Sollom then decided to tell the passengers themselves and his wife Georgie spoke to the first two rows. However, the word had already spread thanks to a couple who were sitting behind them and started telling people what was happening.
Mr. Sollom said that everyone was very happy but then the captain caught wind that communication had been made with other passengers. And he said, on the right, ‘bags off, kick them’.
“I think there was a growing tension within the point because we didn’t sit down. They just said, you have to go, you have to go.”
‘Disturbing 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 the crew had done something wrong only because I was allergic.”
Mr Sollom decided to try to speak to the captain before leaving the plane and knocked twice on the cabin door but said he was ignored.
A SunExpress spokesman 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 family member with a severe peanut allergy and asked other passengers to be notified.
“We refrain from making these types of announcements because, like many other airlines, we cannot ensure an allergen-free environment on our flights, nor prevent other passengers from bringing food items containing allergens board.
“Due to the passenger’s strict behavior towards others on board not to eat them nuts, the captain decided it would be safer if the family did not travel on our flight.”
Nadim Ednan-Laperouse, OBE, co-founder of The Natasha Allergy Research Foundation, a UK food allergy charity, said SunExpress’s actions were “reprehensible and unacceptable”.
The spokesman alleged that Mr Sollom “banged” on the cockpit door to try to gain access to the flight deck, which he vehemently denies.
His daughter Natasha died in 2016 after eating a baguette on an airline flight that contained sesame seeds that were not marked on the label, triggering 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 their horror stories about airline travel. This is a cause for concern because the world is becoming more and more allergic.
“The airline should immediately reassess the way they interact with customers with food allergies and make their policies clear on their website,” said Mr Ednan-Laperouse.
SunExpress said it is reviewing “information provided during our booking process to ensure more effective solutions for passengers with allergies”.
Recalling how a member of the airport staff who was helping the Solloms off the flight told him about a similar incident where a passenger suffered a reaction and the flight was diverted to get medical help, sighed Mr Sollom: “You’re damned if you do and you’re damned. if you don’t.”
Figures from the Food Standards Agency show that 2.4 million adults in the UK now have a diagnosed food allergy.
A recent medical trial found that giving children small amounts of peanuts and milk to treat allergies could help reduce the severity of reactions, which could help save lives.
