BBC weather presenter Georgie Palmer and her family were kicked off a SunExpress plane for making a request concerning their daughter's severe peanut allergy. Photo / Getty Images
BBC weather presenter Georgie Palmer and her family were kicked off a SunExpress plane for making a request concerning their daughter's severe peanut allergy. Photo / Getty Images
Severe peanut allergy ends up costing British family £5000 ($10,390).
BBC weather presenter Georgie Palmer, 49, along with her husband Nick Sollom, 48, and daughters Rosie, 12, and Annie, 14, were kicked off a SunExpress flight after asking passengers to not eat peanuts due to Rosie’s severe allergy.
Nick Sollom told The Telegraph they were removed from the three-and-a-half-hour flight from London Gatwick to Dalman, Turkey, after the captain and crew refused to accommodate their request to announce Rosie’s peanut allergy to the whole cabin.
Her allergy is extreme and being near peanuts can trigger an anaphylactic shock for the 12-year-old, so the couple wanted to take extra precautions during the flight.
Sollom said he encountered the first red flag of their experience when booking the flight. He said there was no way to notify the airline about his daughter’s allergy and he only saw a simple “once on board, please inform our cabin crew about your allergies” on the airline’s website.
On the day of the flight, the personnel at the SunExpress check-in desk also told him to inform the cabin crew once on board.
However, once in the cabin, Sollom claimed the crew “didn’t really care” when he made a request to ask other passengers not to eat nuts. He said the captain also refused to help the family and locked himself in the cockpit, leaving the cabin crew to resolve the issue.
“They just said the captain has refused to do this. And he will not make any sort of announcement. It’s not his policy or company policy to do this,” Sollom told The Telegraph.
“They just kept trying to say that the captain would not come out and discuss this, the matter was closed,” he said.
Nick Sollom (left), Georgie Palmer and daughter Rosie Sollom. Photo / Georgie Palmer
Desperate for help, the couple decided to take care of the situation themselves, starting with Georgie Palmer speaking to the first two rows of the flight.
She shared on Instagram: “We gently asked the passengers at the front of the plane to share our request.
“Row by row, all the passengers turned back to kindly ask the row behind to please not eat nuts on the flight.”
A couple also helped the family spread the word, but Sollom said “the captain then caught wind that communication had been made to other passengers. And he just said, ‘right, bags off, kick them off’.”
Sollom said he knocked on the cabin door twice to try to resolve the issue with the captain but was ignored.
After getting booted off the flight, Sollom said they had to spend £5000 ($10,390) for last-minute bookings and accommodation.
Rosie felt humiliated and said: “I was treated like I had done something wrong by the crew only for having an allergy.”
Turkish-German airline SunExpress claims Nick Sollom and his family were aggressive towards staff. Photo / Getty Images
A spokesperson from SunExpress acknowledged the family’s case in a statement shortly after.
“We refrain from making these kinds of announcements as, like many other airlines, we cannot guarantee an allergen-free environment on our flights, nor prevent other passengers from bringing food items containing allergens on board.
“Due to the insistent behaviour of the passenger to others on board that they should not consume nuts, the captain decided it would be safest if the family did not travel on our flight.”
The statement also said Sollom exhibited aggressive behaviour and tried to gain access to the cockpit, which he denies.
The Turkish-German airline stated its website specifies passengers must notify the airline 48 hours in advance for any special care required due to a medical condition.
“No such notification was received from the passengers in this instance,” SunExpress said.
The airline said it was reviewing its booking process to create more effective solutions for passengers with allergies.
The BBC announcer quickly replied to the airline’s claims, and said it was “absolute nonsense”.
Palmer also denied the airline’s claims they were aggressive to the staff and said her husband did not try to get into the cockpit.
To continue their planned holiday, the family opted for an EasyJet flight to the Turkish holiday resort the next day and shared that the crew helped them by asking passengers to avoid opening peanut packets.
SunExpress’ actions have drawn criticism from Nadim Ednan-Laperouse, co-founder of The Natasha Allergy Research Foundation, a prominent advocate for food allergy awareness in Britain.
Ednan-Laperouse, who lost his daughter Natasha to a fatal allergic reaction on a flight in 2016, described the airline’s behaviour as “shocking and unacceptable”.
Using an EpiPen to treat anaphylactic shock can be dangerous too. Photo / Getty Images
He said “food allergies are an illness, not a lifestyle choice”, and highlighted the need for airlines to improve their policies and communication with food-allergic passengers.
“Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident. We often hear from families with food allergies who tell us their awful stories about airline travel. This is worrying as the world is becoming ever more allergic.
“The airline should immediately reappraise the way they engage with food-allergic customers and make their policies clear on their website,” he said.
Each year, between 20 and 40 deaths are attributed to anaphylaxis, according to the British Society for Allergy and Clinical Immunology.
