A TikToker has taken to the platform to air her grievances with an airline after her sister had an allergic reaction to her in-flight meal. The video has garnered more than 848,000 views since being posted.
User @aly_sf says in the video that before her sister accepted the in-flight meal she was offered by an Aer Lingus flight attendant, she asked if the meal was nut free because her sister is highly allergic. The creator tells her viewers that the attendant informed her that Aer Lingus is a nut-free airline, clarifying that this covered all nuts.
@aly_sf Reply to @mr_culkeen please imagine how frightening it is to be 40,000 feet in the air without any help. I thought she was going to die because @aerlingus was not willing to help. #airlinestory #aerlingus #allergicreaction ♬ original sound – Alessandra West ✨
However, less than 20 seconds after her sister started eating, her throat began to swell.
“It was so immediate that [the flight attendant] was still right here in our aisle, so I said, ‘My sister’s having an allergic reaction right now, I need to know what was in this meal,'” she says. “He was like, ‘Well, I can’t guarantee that there wasn’t any nuts in it, but we’re a nut-free airline.'”
Then when she asked for a second bread roll, because her sister has found that eating high-carb foods like bread and crackers can help lessen the effects of an allergic reaction as they absorb the allergen, the flight attendant allegedly shook his head and said, “not possible.”
“He said, ‘Everyone has to get one before I can give you a second,'” she says in the video. “I said, ‘I’m not asking for seconds, I’m trying to save my sister’s life.’ And he said, ‘Well, people are going to be upset if you get two and they don’t even get one.’ How upset are people going to be when there’s a dead body on the airplane?”
The flight attendant ultimately told her that he could not assist her, as her sister began to have a life-threatening allergic reaction, until he had finished meal service on the plane.
“The scariest part is that we were 40,000 feet in the air and I thought no one here is willing to help us and I’m going to have to watch my sister die,” she says.
When the flight attendant proved no help, the TikToker says her sister went to the bathroom and made herself throw up. About two hours after taking a Benadryl, the swelling began to go down.
“If you value your life or if you love the people you travel with, don’t travel with Aer Lingus, because they’re ready to just wrap you up in a body bag so everybody can get meal service,” the creator says.
Commenters were quick to criticize the flight attendant for their callousness and lack of clarity about presence of nuts in the in-flight meal.
“The fact that the attendant couldn’t comprehend this was a serious situation is insane,” one commenter wrote. “They shouldn’t be a flight attendant.”
“My brother also has a serious nut allergy,” another commenter wrote. “If someone says, ‘we’re a nut free airline,’ but then says, ‘we cant guarantee?!’ Excuse me?!”
“Surely, the only reaction is to stop the service,” a commenter wrote. “Give her the roll, ask passengers if anyone medically trained and contact captain to land plane ASAP.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to @aly_sf via Instagram direct message and to Aer Lingus directly via email regarding the situation.
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