Posted on 06/03/2008 2:40:34 PM PDT by Baron OBeef Dip
A Long Island woman has filed a lawsuit against American Airlines claiming the carrier endangered her 4-year-old son by serving peanuts on her flight, Newsday reported.
Tehmina Haque says she was assured several times that peanuts would not be served, but flight attendants changed the plan without notice during her April 18 flight to Los Angeles.
Her lawsuit claims she was “tense and fearful .. that her son would have an anaphylactic reaction while imprisoned 35,000 feet in the air,” according to Newsday.
An American Airlines spokesman would not comment on the lawsuit.
The carrier’s peanut allergy policy reads:
“American recognizes that some passengers are allergic to peanuts. Although we do not serve peanuts, we do serve other nut products and there may be trace elements of unspecified peanut ingredients, including peanut oils, in meal and snacks. We make no provisions to be peanut-free.
"Additionally, other customers may bring peanuts on board. Therefore, we cannot guarantee customers will not be exposed to peanuts during flight and strongly encourage customers to take all necessary medical precautions to prepare for the possibility of exposure.”
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Yes, I think people sue over the most ridiculous things these days, but this is a life-threatening allergy and they shouldn’t of promised her it was a peanut free flight if it wasn’t. All they had to do was tell her the truth and she could pick a different flight.
Are you a lawyer cause you sure SOUND like one?
Why must everyone nowadays be subject to the tyranny of the MINORITY? Its freaking nuts (pun intended).
Over how many years did the 32 documented fatalities in this hudy occur? I quess We must ban milk and fish from every flight as well, since each is just as significant in their miniscule occurance as those awful PEANUTS compared to the millions and billions of people exposed to awful PEANUTS every day. People are allergic to cars as well, cars kill 45,000 people a year, but no complaints. Better yet, lets address the millions of good citizens allergic to alcohol, one drink away from of falling into a stupor and death. They should demand American Airlines pull all alchoholic beverages from their flights under threat of suit. Welcome to Nanny States of America, the land of Idiots who cant take care of themselves!
May GOD Save America from the Wackos!:-P
Certainly over 100 worldwide. However, there are also a lot of cases where it’s not possible to determine the trigger for an incident of anaphylactic shock leading to death. And the death toll would certainly be higher if it weren’t for the many thousands of parents and older children who are making a huge effort to avoid exposure. If one of your children had this allergy, and you found yourself in the situation this woman did, you’d being suing too. And you’d win or get a big out of court settlement.
There can be peanuts on a train too.
There are peanuts in the stores
There are peanuts in the movie theatres
There are peanuts in candy, cakes, cupcakes, cookies, pies and all kinds of baked goodies
There are peanuts at the zoo
There are peanuts EVERYWHERE.
Suing an Airline is NOT the answer. The Airlines are NOT the keepers of the public.
My little girl is allergic to peanuts also.
We took a flight last year and I had to save her from the peanuts - I ate them, and a couple of extra packs also.
:-)
I’m trying to figure out, since American Airlines has a “no peanut” policy, just where the flight attendants would have gotten peanut packages for distribution to begin with. My guess is Mom either (1) saw a passenger with peanuts and somehow assumed they’d been distributed by the attendants, or (2) saw the other nut packages and assumed they contained peanuts.
In either event, American Airlines has a full disclaimer regarding its policy regarding peanuts. If AA was distributing peanut packs, that’s different; my money says they weren’t.
Amen. the blame game is alive and well.
BTW, have you had the little cup of the mixed nuts that are hot when served on flights? The aroma is out of this world and they are absolutely DELICIOUS. Yum, yum, yummy!!!
Bump your posts on this thread.
I remember those....heck, I remember getting an actual meal flying to Chicago.
Now I bring fruit and a box of snacks for flights. Of course, I get totally s*****d if the flight is going BACK to California from elsewhere, because you can’t bring in fruit from other states.
Wow, that's a pandemic! How many people die from being struck by jettisoned frozen airplane waste? Or falling space junk? LET'S ALL SUE NASA!!!
Tell me again why you chose the handle "GovernmentShrinker"?
Gotta ban all sharp edges , too. Lot’s of hemophiliacs out there!
I dont see where this lady has any damages. Opportunistic lawsuit. Pox on our already broken legal system.
As far as I know, there haven’t been any laws passed regarding this, except for food labelling laws, and perhaps some state laws regarding school lunch menus. And I hope it will stay that way, but major slip-ups like this one from American Airlines increase the chance of an avalanche of nanny-state legislation.
The incidence of a “special need” like this is a big part of whether it’s reasonable for public accommodations and commercial products to take steps to address it. Peanut allergy is extremely common and becoming more so, for reasons researchers don’t really understand. There are other food allergies (as well as non-food allergies) that are less common and/or less severe, and it just doesn’t make sense to limit public use of them.
A friend of mine from college has a son with life-threatening food allergies to wheat, eggs, and shellfish. Her life utterly revolved around his allergies when he was too young to take much responsibility for avoiding these triggers. But she had no choice. By age 4 he’d already had 3 bouts of life-threatening anaphylactic shock (not sure of the details, but it may have been that each one alerted them to another thing he was allergic to). And wheat and eggs are just too commonly used, and too uncommonly the source of allergic reactions, for any reasonable person to propose that they be completely banned from restuarant and airline menus, even on a voluntary basis.
"she wants to reduce the chance of that happening to another child."
If it saves just one child
“If you or your kid are allergic to peanuts, avoid places where they are common.”
We’ve almost banned public smoking just because some folks don’t like the smell of cigarette smoke.
Yep, gotta Ban all Airplanes! they cause passengers to have violent reactions and emotions when told by the Captain, “ Sorry folks, I’ve done all I can and wish You the Best! How good are You at praying fast?” But lets get back to a serious Danger, like Global Warning, PEANUTS are Saddam’s Chosen Weapon of Mass Destruction.:-)
I would think that if her claim that the peanuts were distributed by flight attendants were false, American Airlines would be quick to say so publicly, so as not to lose the business of many other people who have someone with a peanut allergy in their family or travelling party. Instead the AA spokesman “declines to comment”.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.