A freelance BBC weather presenter, her husband, and her two kids were booted off a plane for requesting that fellow passengers on the flight not consume peanuts.
Georgie Palmer, 49, was aboard a SunExpress flight from London Gatwick to Dalaman in Turkey on Tuesday, May 28, when the incident took place. Her husband, Nick Sollom, 48, and their two daughters, Rosie, 12, and Annie, 14, were also traveling with her.
The British TV personality initially asked the flight’s captain to make a standard announcement asking passengers not to eat peanuts because of her daughter’s allergy. However, when the flight’s crew turned down her request, the mother took matters into her own hands and began asking the passengers around her not to eat peanuts. She also asked them to pass on the message to other passengers.
Georgie Palmer took to social media to share her woes of being kicked off a plane over an issue related to her daughter’s peanut allergy
“The SunExpress captain and cabin crew refused to make the standard announcement on behalf of our daughter,” Georgie wrote in an Instagram post, as quoted by The Sun. “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,” she continued.
“It was calm, earnest and with an overwhelming sense of solidarity and empathy,” she added.
“There’s no beef with simple asks like these. People get it!” she said.
Although fellow fliers were ready to comply, the flight captain eventually asked her and her family to de-board the plane before takeoff, she said.
“We were hoofed off the plane after the angry little captain shouted at us from the cockpit,” she wrote.
The 49-year-old mother was traveling with her husband and their two daughters, aged 12 and 14, when the incident took place
The conundrum led to the family having to pay an extra $6,377 (£5,000) to book into an airport hotel and catch an EasyJet flight to Dalaman the next day. The flight made several announcements asking passengers to refrain from opening peanut packets aboard the flight, according to BBC London.
In her Instagram post, Georgie took a moment to thank the passengers on the plane for paying heed to her request.
“I thanked the beautiful souls on our plane for helping us,” she said. “Many of them hugged, cheered and held our hands as we were forced to disembark.”
Crew members aboard the SunExpress flight reportedly turned down the mother’s request to announce to passengers not to consume peanuts due to her daughter’s allergy
Following the incident, the TV personality said she hopes the Turkish-German airline will “take notice” of the incident.
She revealed while speaking to BBC London that the crew members got “very defensive” when she asked them to make the announcement and was “horrified” when they turned her down.
“My ask is for the airline industry as a whole to take notice of this,” she told the outlet. “What are your policies about nuts – make that crystal clear on your website.
“Allow your passengers the choice to know whether it is safe to fly with you,” she continued. “As we know, you can never enforce an entirely nut-free environment – can we not take a leaf out of the book of restaurants who go to great efforts these days to protect people?”
When the flight crew did not pay heed, Georgie asked fellow passengers not to consume peanuts and said they were willing to comply
A spokesperson for SunExpress acknowledged the incident but noted that the airline avoids making such announcements because they cannot guarantee an “allergen-free environment” on flights.
“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,” the spokesperson told the outlet.
They said in their statement that a member of the family turned “aggressive” and even tried to gain access to the cockpit.
“Due to the insistent behavior 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 spokesperson continued. “When this was explained to the passenger, he exhibited aggressive behaviour towards our crew members, and tried to gain access to the cockpit.”
The “angry little captain” shouted from the cockpit and eventually had the family “hoofed off the plane,” the TV personality said
“To ensure the safety of our crew and passengers, we don’t tolerate aggressive and unruly behavior on our flights,” they added.
SunExpress also noted that passengers are expected to notify the airline 48 hours prior to departure in case any special care is needed due to a medical condition. They also said this information is included on their website.
However, “no such notification was received from the passengers in this instance,” SunExpress told the outlet.
The airline nevertheless acknowledged that the series of events would have been “upsetting” for Georgie and her family, and they will be “conducting a review of the information provided” during their ticket-booking procedure.
The airline addressed the incident and claimed they had to throw the family out because of their “aggressive and unruly behavior”
In response to the airline’s claim about them being “aggressive,” the TV personality said it was “absolute nonsense.”
“It’s simply not true. There was no aggressive behaviour from us,” she said and hoped her fellow fliers would agree.
Georgie noted that the flight’s pilot spoke to them about the issue at some point before going inside the cockpit and closing the door. When her husband tried to speak to him again, she said he knocked on the door of the cockpit but did not try to enter the cockpit as the airline’s statement suggested.
Normally it is the airline that makes its own policy when it comes to handling food allergies, according to Independent.
While Virgin Atlantic states that peanuts “are never knowingly included in any of our meals on board,” Emirates maintains that they “serve nuts on all our flights, either as a meal ingredient or as an accompaniment to drinks. Traces of nut residue could be passed on to other surfaces of the aircraft as well as through the air conditioning system.”
BBC London reported that British Airways, EasyJet, Ryanair, and Jet2 are among those airlines willing to make announcements and also not serve nuts upon requests from passengers.
People had mixed feelings about the situation, with some picking the mother’s side and others reasoning with the pilot
