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Woman with allergy forced to miss flight as crew refused to stop serving nuts

A woman with a severe peanut allergy has claimed staff on an international flight refused to accommodate her with a simple request that could save her life.

British woman Meleri Williams was travelling with a friend from Esquel to Buenos Aires in Argentina when she asked airline crew if they could refrain from serving peanuts during the flight as she has a “severe nut allergy”.

Ms Williams posted about the incident on Twitter and said staff on the Aerolineas Argentinas aircraft refused to stop selling the in-flight snack, despite advising staff that she could “develop an anaphylactic reaction and potentially die”.

Although Ms Williams said she carried an epipen with her, she didn’t want to put herself in a “high risk” enclosed environment with food that she was allergic to.

The British woman said that after a lengthy discussion with crew, who called a doctor, she decided not to board the flight and ended up having to take a bus ride for more than 20 hours to her destination as there were no other flights available.

Source: Getty/Facebook/Meleri Williams
Source: Getty/Facebook/Meleri Williams

Sara, who was travelling with Ms Williams Tweeted about how disappointed she was with the airline that “would rather give out nuts than cater to my friend’s sever nut allergy”.

After contacting the airline through their verified social media account to suggest an investigation of the matter, Ms Williams said she didn’t received a response.

“This message was sent to you over a week ago. I’m still waiting for a reply. Your non-existing nut allergy policy needs to be explored URGENTLY,” she wrote on Twitter, along with screenshots of her message.

Ms Williams told the airline that when she arrived in Esquel she found that people she shared her story with felt the airline was in the wrong.

“Everyone we met expressed great sympathy at my experience with the flight and I have to say, disgust at the way I was treated,” she wrote.

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