Peanut Allergy Gets Family Kicked off Utah Flight
Luciana Mangas May 06, 2016
A San Francisco Bay Area family claims they were kicked off their Allegiant Air flight from Provo, Utah, earlier this week after they told the crew that their two-year-old son had a severe peanut allergy. CNN reports that the child’s father, Kyson Dana, revealed that the family had inquired about the possibility of the crew not serving any peanuts in the immediate vicinity of their seats in order to avoid any possible allergic reaction from their son.
They say that at least one flight attendant was sympathetic to their situation and asked the nearby passengers if they could forgo peanuts during that particular flight. However, another crew member urged the family not to fly.
“My wife said, ‘We’re obviously flying on the plane, and we recognize the risks. We have an EpiPen with us,'” Dana told KSTU, a CNN affiliate, referring to the Epinephrine Pen, which is used to treat severe allergic reactions.
A third crew member then told the family that the pilot had requested that they exit the plane, following consultation with a medical professional. The Dana family said they were completely baffled by the situation, but followed the crew’s instructions and found another flight home.
In an email statement, Allegiant Air told the CNN that “The Dana family indicated to our flight crew that their son had a severe peanut allergy … The flight crew then contacted a third party organization that advises Allegiant and other carriers when making decisions about the safety of passengers with potential medical issues onboard an aircraft. [That] third party organization, which includes on-call medical doctors available to provide guidance, advised that the family not fly on that specific flight.”
The airline also informed that the company provided the family with tickets to another carrier.
[Photo: Getty]
It has been reported that they flew out of SLC on AA. Hardly a nut-free carrier. Sounds like there is more to this story.....
I can't imagine what better solution the carrier could have provided. If their kid has a severe peanut allergy, they should have prepared and alerted the airline well ahead, not when they've already boarded.
Allegiant is the only airline that flies out of the Provo airport, so it must have been a hassle to re-accommodate them onto another airline, probably out of SLC.
Shameful, inconsiderate parents! Putting their child at life-threatening risk in hopes that other paying pax will accept their imposition. Disgusting.
While I was not able to find evidence for airborne peanut particle reactions from the mere consumption of the nuts ... I think the airline did the right thing: there would be peanut residue all over the plane and hence the only safe solution is to fly a nut-free carrier. I always travel with medication and different-grade masks to be prepared for an allergic reaction. On-the-fly demand that all other passengers do this and don't do that should not be expected to be complied with.