JD1905

I heard part of the conversation happen when the passenger boarded. It’s completely possible they then turned back and went to the gate. Wasn’t paying much attention.

So there certainly is an element of truth to the story, whether or not it is the true cause of the delay I am unsure. But if it is, then it’s good to get to the root cause of why and try and stop it happening again.

Not moaning for the sake of it, is what it is. Thought easyjet were better for my flights this weekend overall but they were let down by Gatwick slightly.

craigdthomas

Done that every time my daughter travels with us and 90 % of the time it isn't communicated to the crew on their flight info.
She's sat in her chair before and found Almonds down the side.

DelTroon

Malaysian Airlines (part of the Oneworld alliance) have a signature dish, Satay, which is served in their First (Business Suite) and Business Class cabins. This has been a tradition for many years and the airline pride themselves on the popularity of the dish which obviously comes with a bowl of super rich peanut butter sauce. I am quietly confident that if any passenger told the airline they had a peanut allergy the airline would not be offering to stop serving their signature dish.

SonTech

As soon as the boarding pass was scanned tjey are classed as being boarded regardless of whether they actually set foot on the aircraft. If the passengers had bags they would take some time to find which was probably the main chunk of the 74 minute delay.

JD1905

Indeed and a completely plausible explanation for the delay. But just seems to be an extreme circumstance to have somebody Offloaded due to an allergy, but as mentioned by CWS earlier in the thread, this has happened before.

If indeed we can be convinced that this was the case, then the question has to be asked as to why it wasn't communicated to the crew etc.

BOH

Always wondered about bags that are in the hold and needing to be offloaded. Given each has a barcode linking to a pax, can they be located relatively easily from this if needed to be offloaded? So can the baggage handlers make a guesstimate as to where they might be in the hold based on which baggage loading truck they were on, ie it was the third of four? Or it even more accurate that they know (for example) this particular bag was #124 of 170 so probably at the start of the last third of those loaded in the hold?

Ghoulish

Do you mean as in in the crevice of the seat?

Theres no such thing as "contact" nut allergies, consumption is required to trigger a reaction.

astra19e

It's funny, I suffer from something called Oral Allergy Syndrome, which is a less serious type of allergy where your body basically reacts to some foods in a similar way to something like hay fever. I don't declare it because it's not necessary or serious and most of the time I can easily avoid the foods that trigger it by tactical menu picking.
But I've travelled on quite a few flights where the crew mentions that someone has a severe allergy to X and it's still in half the items in Club or First. To be honest I'm not sure why they still bother with nut-heavy meals. They're not particularly common in British cuisine and being the most common allergen I'm not sure a lot of people would miss them.

corporate-wage-slave

OK, here's one scenario: passenger ends up on your flight, perhaps a late booking or transferred from a cancelled flight - pleny of both at the moment. They have checked luggage, get scanned at the gate. They mention to the gate agent that they have an allergy to product X. Gate agent tells the Integrated Ramp Supervisor/ Turnaround Manager. A dialogue ensures, maybe the passenger is a bit vague, maybe some messaging or details gets lost on the TRM. TRM goes off to speak to the Flight Deck. Flight Deck will be mindful of that case to NCE involving Pret sandwiches and asks (e.g.) does the passenger have their epi-pens on them. I know from my experience at vaccination centres that half the people who have epi-pens don't actually bring them to vaccination centres, second question we ask is about allergies. I imagine many people put their epi pens in their checked luggage. I say half, that's not a scientific term, but some people are very careful and sensible about allergies, others live without problems for years, don't get a re-assessment (which are tricky to get) and get a bit lax about what they do. Epi-pens aren't the only answer in this space. But all that together the captain uses their judgement, in the 2 minutes they have for this, to deny travel on a balance of risk.

Now we mention allergies, what if it was actually that a bag was placed in the hold with lithium batteries and the passenger only realised this at that gate? A very similar logic applies, the captain would need the bag offloaded, which means passenger too. Anything in this space, which includes passengers not making connections, that results in baggage coming off and checked is going to add a good 30 minutes plus at the best f times, even though airline staff tend to think it takes "20 minutes or so".

craigdthomas

Down the side of the seat in first.
You can have anaphylaxis from touching the item and then unwittingly touching your lips. Same with flight crew serving drinks after they have handled nuts.

SonTech

Usually the answer is yes, they would have a rough idea where it was on the aircraft.

Globaliser

I always think it's pretty impressive when someone fails to board a heavily-loaded A380, and their bag(s) can be found and offloaded and the rest of the baggage reloaded within 20-25 minutes. Especially when the baggage handlers should probably have moved on to other flights by then.

The main additional downside is that the cans sometimes seem to get swapped around in the reloading process. So you have to prepare yourself for "random baggage delivery day" when you get to the other end.

Can I help you

So all the bags are scanned and so is the container/bin they are loaded in, depending on where the bin is loaded it is a straightforward process, the problem is the bin that they may have a few other bins that have to be removed before they have access. Then all the bags in the bin have to be removed to find the baggage to be offloaded and repacked.

mnhusker

This is incorrect, and part of the problem with people who declare they have "nut allergies".

Most people are as you say, they are only at issue if they ingest the offending nut.

But their are people, the ones who truly have severe allergies requiring they carry Epi Pens that can have life threatening anaphylactic shock if the merely come in contact with the nut or something that has been exposed to the nut dust. For these people, travel in public planes, trains and buses is quite difficult.

Fortunately, these severe reactions are very, very rare.

The airlines could easily separate the two merely by asking to see their Epi Pen and other medications. If you ain't carrying these life saving medications (they are extremely expensive!!!) then you do not have the real illness) and can be told you have "Planters Syndrome" (Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don't)

ACYYZ/SD

Was under the impression that most airlines create a buffer zone whereby Customers in an established radius are requested not to consume nut products. This is generally established by the airlines medical services department so the crew is not blindsided, but should it happen at departure, the proper measures and protocols are taken to avoid a deplanement situation such as the one described above. Something sounds amiss. This of course by no means is a guarantee that the aircraft environment is free of the culprit allergen.
Visual confirmation of an Epi-pen is always requested regardless.