A pregnant woman with a seafood allergy says she was forced off a plane after an air steward refused to stop selling a tuna dish on the in-flight menu and told her he ‘wouldn’t be dictated to’.
Abbey Holling and her mother were left stranded in Corfu after ‘vile’ easyJet staff allegedly ignored her concerns about her life-threatening airborne allergy before ‘belittling’ them in front of the entire plane.
In a post on Facebook detailing her ordeal, Ms Holling, 24, said an air steward told her he was refusing to stop selling products with tuna in them, adding: ‘I’ve been working since 4:00. I have a Tuna salad I want to eat so I will be eating that.’
A video filmed by a fellow passenger showed how one of the air crew told Ms Holling: ‘We are legally entitled to a meal break and I won’t have customers dictate to me what I can or can’t eat.’
She now worries the incident has ’caused strain and stress on my pregnancy’, adding staff made her feel ‘vulnerable’ and ‘sick to my stomach’.
The chaos unfolded on a plane from the Greek island to Manchester on Tuesday evening.
Ms Holling said she had informed easyJet prior to the flight about her allergies, although the airline disputes this.
It has reimbursed her for extra costs incurred as a result of the incident and is investigating, a spokesperson said.
She described initially being ‘reassured’ by a member of the crew who told her no products containing sea food would be sold during the flight.
But a second member of staff then approached her and her mother and said the products would in fact be sold.
After asking to speak to the in-flight manager, who Ms Holling described as ‘vile’, she said she informed him that she was at risk of death if the products were sold on the flight.
She claims she even offered to buy all the affected products to avoid any loss of revenue to the airline, but says this was also refused.
The plane was then turned around so the pair could disembark from the plane, but Ms Holling accused the manager of further ‘belittling’ them by refusing to tell fellow passengers the cause of the delay.
‘He announced it over the speaker saying ‘we are turning this around because two people don’t want to fly with us’ tonight,’ she said.
‘He didn’t explain why I couldn’t be on the flight and so everyone began booing, swearing, tutting, and making us feel uncomfortable.’
Ms Holling and her mother were eventually able to travel back to the UK on Thursday, two days later than planned.
She said that once they were ready to disembark the plane, one of the pilots made an announcement, saying: ‘The reason we are delayed is because we won’t stop selling Tuna sandwiches.’
A spokesperson for easyJet said that ‘safety is our highest priority’.
They told MailOnline: ‘Safety is our highest priority and so we ask any customers with any allergy to notify us ahead of travel, to ensure we can do all we can to help them when they fly with us.
‘As Ms Holling only notified us of her tuna allergy once on board and subsequently did not travel, we are looking into how this was managed onboard and have been in touch with her to understand more and apologise for her experience, and reimburse her alternative travel expenses.’
