Worst Passenger of the Week: Ryanair Passenger Refuses to Stop Eating Nuts, Causes Allergic Reaction
Amanda Cyr August 15, 2014
Every Friday, FlyerTalk looks back at the week’s most charming individuals. While there are always plenty of contenders for our Worst Passenger of the Week award, only one lucky flyer can take home the glory.
Third Place: The Ivy League Groper
Eun Jong Lee, 47, is living proof that even smart men can be incredibly dumb. Lee, a professor at Handong Global University in South Korea and a visiting scholar at Cornell University, was on a 13-hour United Airlines flight from Tokyo to Newark on Sunday when he thought it would be a good idea to fondle the breasts of a stranger sleeping sitting next to him before slipping his hand under her shirt.
When the woman awoke and confronted Lee, he fled to the bathroom and she alerted the flight crew. Lee was detained by the FBI upon arriving at Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) and subsequently charged with abusive sexual contact. If convicted, Lee could face a two-year prison sentence and a $250,000 fine.
Second Place: Why Yes, They Are Real… Real Illegal!
Fake breasts always draw attention, but those belonging to a 43-year-old Venezuelan drug mule drew the attention of the wrong crowd — customs officers at Adolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport (MAD). The unnamed woman began acting strangely while narcotics agents performed their routine screenings of passengers arriving from Bogota, Colombia.
Although the woman’s luggage was clean, a frisking revealed “irregularities” in both breasts. It turns out that carrying 3.75 pounds of cocaine in one’s implants causes irregularities.
The woman confessed when questioned by the Spanish National Police. She was detained for an alleged crime against public health and rushed to the hospital to have her implants removed. Doctors found $2.5 million worth of cocaine in them.
The Winner: A True Nutjob
An unnamed man has been banned from flying Ryanair for two years after causing a 4-year-old girl to go into anaphylactic shock on a flight from Tenerife to London Stansted Airport (STN). The 4-year-old, Fae Platten, had a nut allergy so severe that Ryanair crew refused to sell nuts on the flight and repeatedly warned passengers of her sensitivity.
Despite the three clear warnings, a passenger seated four rows away from Platten began to snack on his personal stash of peanuts. The peanut particles circulated through the cabin and triggered an allergic reaction in Platten 20 minutes after takeoff. Her breathing slowed, lips blistered and tongue swelled before she stopped breathing and fell unconscious. An ambulance driver on the flight revived her with an anti-allergy adrenaline shot. Upon landing at STN, Platten was taken to a hospital, and Ryanair is “delighted” to hear that she is making a swift recovery.
According to Platten’s mother, the man was Zimbabwean and traveling with his family. “He was a dad with teenage children so he should have known better,” she said, describing the man as “incredibly selfish.” At least one passenger seated near the man tried to prevent him from opening the bag. Police escorted him off the plane, but did not arrest him. The man reportedly told officers he did not speak English very well.
Each airline has different policies in place for allergic passengers. While Ryanair “cannot guarantee a peanut free aircraft,” according to their website, passengers can notify flight attendants before boarding or once boarded and they will make an announcement.
[Photo: iStock]
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This was a big parenting fail. they should have had an epi-pen. Someone who is as allergic as that should always carry one when they will encounter situtations where a) they don't prepare the food themselves and b) they are in an enviroment where they might enounter people who may eat peanuts or nuts. As far as the passenger with the peanuts goes, yes it was rude and inconsiderate considering he was specifically warned by the passenger next to him. To play devil's advocate on the last fact though, in these days of poor airline service, if I had brought a bag of nuts as my meal(since nothing is provided) I'm be severely annoyed and hangry that I no longer had anything to eat.
greatwhitenorth - just because legumes and tree nuts are two different types of food does not mean that a nut allergy and a legume allergy are mutually exclusive. According to studies approximately 25 - 40 % of people who have a peanut allergy are also allergic to tree nuts. Source: http://www.foodallergy.org/allergens/peanut-allergy
I almost agree. The airline should...really should have more than an announcement. Yes, not every one speaks or understands English well enough to recognize the importance of an announcement. And they should always have credible documentation on file from the travelling person or their guardian. Perhaps so simple as they have a sign they can carry with a picture of peanuts with a big no allow sign superimposed. It could be shown as the attendant checks the seat belts and I verification witnessed. Then there could be legal overtones. Am I so far off base on this?
Thought long and hard about how to reply to Dubai Stu, pointing out the risks of the harm to the child (very real) vs the minimal inconvenience (nothing more) to DS. I don't know whether he's trying to prove a point to himself by pushing back against some perceived political correctness gone mad...? But once someone takes up a position such as DS's, I don't think anything I can say (anyone can say?) is going to come close to getting a reasoned reaction.
Sorry Stu but I think you're off base here. Peanut allergies aren't something you "think you might have". Nut allergies are very severe and if the flight attendants made several warnings of a severe allergy, you just accept it and don't eat nuts for the flight. Demanding to see proof is unreasonable in this situation IMO. I'm with you on the whole bandwagon for other allergies though. There is a lot of it out there. Many people who claim to be gluten sensitive have no idea what it even is or what it's in. My mother in law is full celiac, and my wife we think probably is sensitive or will develop celiac at some point(my Mother in law is one of 3 in her immediate family, it's fairly hereditary). For herself, my wife doesn't make a stink about it though, she eats carefully and will try to avoid gluten when possible. She hasn't gotten tested yet to see if she is celiac or not, but does get strong stomach pain after eating food with gluten (yes including when she doesn't know it had gluten in it). Thankfully small amounts like cross contamination don't bother her (her mother will be in horrible pain even from something like someone using the same knife for her food that was used for something with gluten), so we're not as restricted as some in what/where we can eat.