A couple with a deadly nut allergy claim they were ‘forced off’ a flight after crew members apparently refused to stop giving out cakes containing almonds.
Pretoria Drever, 22, and Rhonan Kelly, 25, boarded a KLM flight on October 25 to Amsterdam.
The trip to the Netherlands was to celebrate their recent engagement and Rhonan’s 25th birthday.
Both are severely allergic to nuts, including peanuts, and Pretoria claims she notified the airline via an online form.
She even made sure to get to Edinburgh Airport two hours early to alert staff, too.
However, when the couple boarded the plane they claim the airline refused to stop serving nut products, including a complimentary banana loaf topped with almonds, or issue a passenger announcement.
Instead, they were allegedly told to leave the plane or risk the journey as there were EpiPens on board.
Pretoria has an airborne allergy and the couple say they felt ‘backed into a corner’ and ‘humiliated’.
Pretoria Drever, 22, and Rhonan Kelly, 25, boarded a KLM flight on October 25 to Amsterdam, Netherlands
In the end, they felt they had to get off the plane and miss out on their £700 holiday.
The pair recorded their interactions on the plane with crew members and and in one video clip, a staff member says: ‘We’re handing out food because people paid for a service and we’re not going to take that away from them.
‘I can show you in the manuals, that’s the procedure.’
Rhonan, from Lanarkshire, Scotland, then angrily responds, ‘that’s shocking, every other airline does it for us’.
He admitted he’s ‘never felt so discriminated against in all my life’ and added: ‘I honestly believe if we took off on that flight and they served the nuts they’d have taken an emergency landing in London or we’d have probably died on the flight.
‘When we book a holiday, we always double check with the airline [about our allergies].
‘We asked if they’d put an announcement out to ask passengers not to open anything if they do have nuts in them and if they could not sell nuts on the plane.
‘Even the menu for that day was meant to be a cookie but when we got on the plane it was a banana loaf with almonds and nuts on it.’
Both happen to be severely allergic to nuts, including peanuts, and Pretoria claims she notified the airline via an online form
However, when the couple boarded the plane they claim the airline refused to stop serving nut products, including a complimentary banana loaf topped with almonds, or issue a passenger announcement
Rhonan recalled his conversations with crew members on the plane and claims they were told ‘basically not to fly’.
He added: ‘They also said they were willing to take the chance if we wanted to stay on the plane as well because they had EpiPens.
‘But an EpiPen is only meant to put adrenaline in your body until an ambulance comes so that’s not the answer when you’re in the sky.
‘They said if we weren’t happy with them selling nuts and didn’t like the idea because there were tons of people on board, 190 of them and two of us, we had to get off the plane.’
The Scot felt the situation was ‘very embarrassing’ and said: ‘I felt as if I was backed into a corner because no matter what we said or did, we knew we weren’t going to win.
‘The pilot said that basically they need to carry out a service for what everybody’s paid for but I paid for it as well. I feel quite disgusted that an airline would do something like that.’
As for Pretoria, she explained how she could go into anaphylactic shock within just two minutes of nut exposure because of her airborne allergy and the experience has put her off flying.
She said: ‘They were putting our safety at risk. There’s two of us but 190 passengers so that’s the whole air with nuts in it, it was horrible. I’ll never fly with them again and it’s put me off flying ever again.’
Instead, they were allegedly told to leave the plane or risk the journey as there were EpiPens on board
The couple were ‘gutted’ to miss their trip and hope to get a refund from KLM.
A KLM spokesman apologised for the couple’s experience and said: ‘We understand how serious nut allergies can be and how distressing this situation must have been for them.
‘When a passenger informs our crew about a nut allergy, we can make an onboard announcement kindly requesting fellow passengers to keep nut-containing products sealed for the duration of the flight.
‘However, we cannot control or prohibit other passengers from consuming products that may contain nuts during the flight.
‘While we do our utmost to support passengers with allergies, we unfortunately cannot guarantee a nut-free environment on board.
‘We regret that Mr Kelly and Ms Drever felt they had no choice but to leave the aircraft, and we understand their disappointment.’
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