BBC climate presenter says being kicked off flight was ‘humiliating’

A BBC weather forecaster whose family were kicked off a flight after a row over her daughter’s nut allergy has said the experience was ‘humiliating and desperate’.

Georgie Palmer, 49, her husband Nick Sollom, 48, and daughters Rosie, 12, and Annie, 14, were ordered off the SunExpress flight from London Gatwick to Dalaman, Turkey on Tuesday after telling the crew Rosie had an anaphylactic allergy to peanuts.

It came after Ms Palmer said staff refused to make a standard announcement requesting passengers not eat peanuts because they had ‘updated’ their allergies policy.

Instead she politely asked passengers around her not to consume any peanuts and pass the message on, which they did happily.

But she says this enraged the ‘angry little’ captain who demanded they leave before the flight would take off.

In an interview on Good Morning Britain, the BBC presenter said the whole experience was ‘absolutely humiliating and desperate for my daughter’.

She said that anaphylaxis is ‘terrifying’ and called on airlines to improve their allergy policies. 

She added there is a ‘deep lack of clarity’ about allergy policies but that after a decade of flying, this was the first time they had had such a difficult experience. 

The BBC forecaster explained to Charlotte Hawkins and Richard Madeley that she had tried to contact the airline in advance but was unable to get through. 

Ms Palmer said in previous years she would call beforehand, follow the rules on the website and let cabin crew know as they boarded.

But this time she was unable to speak to anyone and the captain refused to talk to them. 

After sitting down and politely requesting passengers didn’t eat peanuts Ms Palmer said the captain became enraged and ordered them off the plane. 

Describing the incident she said: ‘How we were treated was disgusting. The captain decided because of my daughter’s allergy he didn’t want to fly with her on board.

‘When he found out I had spoken to the other passengers he was screaming at me from the cockpit. He was so angry, the next thing I knew we were told to get off the plane.

‘It is really beautiful how every passenger on that plane was so wonderful but nobody working on that plane showed one ounce of compassion.’

‘We have spent the last 12 years trying to teach people about the allergy and to use epi-pens. It’s a volatile allergen and even if Rosie didn’t come into direct contact with a peanut, if somebody was eating one on board she could die.

Nadim Ednan-Laperouse, OBE, co-founder of The Natasha Allergy Research Foundation, the UK’s food allergy charity, said: ‘Food allergies are an illness not a lifestyle choice, and the experience of this family on board a plane is shocking and unacceptable.

‘The airline should immediately re-appraise the way they engage with food allergic customers and make their policies clear on their website.

‘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.’ 

Nadim added: ‘Latest figures from the Food Standards Agency show there are now 2.4 million adults in the UK with a diagnosed food allergy, in addition to huge numbers of children with food allergies. Airlines need to recognise that people with food allergies are their customers and take action to ensure everyone can travel safely.’

Meanwhile, the family took an EasyJet flight to the holiday resort the following day and said crew happily made several announcements asking passengers not to open packets of peanuts on board.

But the family was forced to spend an extra £5,000 booking the additional flights, an airport hotel and other costs.

Ms Palmer said: ‘Rosie is in a terrible state about this. It has ruined her holiday.

‘We don’t go away all the time, we maybe fly once a year and have never had problems with other airlines.

‘If we had known that policy we would never have booked with them but we have been through the website with a fine-tooth comb and there is nothing.

‘There was no way to tell the airline beforehand so how many people with peanut allergies will fly on SunExpress this summer not knowing the policy.

‘It’s been three days and we haven’t heard anything from SunExpress. Our insurance says the captain has the discretion to remove people for no reason.’

In an Instagram post, Ms Palmer added: ‘We gently asked the passengers at the front of the plane to share our request, and, row by row, as swift as a carefully crafted toppling domino trail, all the passengers turned back to kindly ask the row behind to please not eat nuts on the flight.

‘It was calm, earnest & with an overwhelming sense of solidarity & empathy.

‘There’s no beef with simple asks like these. People get it! The hand holding, tears & emotion from the passengers as we were hoofed off the plane after the angry little captain shouted at us from the cockpit.’

A spokesman for SunExpress said: ‘We take the safety of our passengers very seriously. Shortly after boarding our flight from London Gatwick, the passenger raised a concern about one of his family group having a serious peanut allergy and requested an announcement to other passengers.

‘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.

‘When this was explained to the passenger, he did exhibit aggressive behaviour towards our crew members, and tried to gain access to the cockpit.

‘To ensure the safety of our crew and our passengers on board, we cannot tolerate aggressive and unruly behaviour on our flights.

‘Additionally, our website states that passengers must notify us 48 hours in advance of any special care required due to a medical condition and no such notification was received from the passengers in this instance.

‘However, we are fully aware that this was an upsetting situation for the family, and we are taking the incident as an opportunity to conduct a review of the information provided during our booking process to ensure more effective solutions for passengers with allergies.’

In response Mr Sollom said that while he was ‘irked’ by the decision to end the family’s holiday before it had started, ‘at no point did I behave aggressively towards any of the crew’.

He added that after being told his bags were to be offloaded, he asked to speak to the captain to plead his case and knocked twice on the cockpit door before leaving the plane.

It’s not the first time a passenger has been removed from a flight due to a peanut allergy.

Last year a British Airways passenger was left feeling ‘completely devastated’ and ‘physically sick’ after she and her family were ‘removed’ from a flight – because her son has a severe nut allergy and there was a meal with nuts on board the plane.

Alice Smith, 43, had spent days in conversation with BA arranging for her cabin on the August 24 flight from London Heathrow to Dubai to be nut-free. 

Yet when BA staff discovered that a cashew nut meal had been delivered to the galley for the meal service, Smith claims they decided to remove her group from the flight instead of the nut dish. So Smith and her family were forced to disembark.

They weren’t placed on another flight to Dubai until the following day. 

As a result of the debacle, the family lost a whole day of their 10-day trip in Dubai, which had been booked – along with their flights – through BA Holidays.

To compensate, an extra day was added on to their trip ‘free of charge’.

Natasha Ednan-Laperouse, 15, died in 2016 after suffering an anaphylactic shock to sesame seeds in a Pret a Manger baguette she had bought at Heathrow before catching a flight to Nice. 

Her death brought about a new food safety law known as ‘Natasha’s Law’ which requires full ingredient and allergen labelling on all food made on premises and pre-packed for direct sale.

** Have YOU ever been kicked off a plane for having a nut allergy? Email [email protected] **