Passenger kicked off KM flight for not having an EpiPen

A woman with a chocolate allergy was kicked off a KM Malta Airlines flight for not having an EpiPen, even though she insists her doctor never prescribed one.

“I was escorted off the aircraft as if I were a criminal… I felt humiliated,” 33-year-old Samantha Mattioli told Times of Malta.

This was the first time she ever encountered an issue on any flights she took over the past eight years – when she first discovered she suffers a cacao allergy, Mattioli said.

Prior to this, whenever she boarded a plane, she would simply inform the cabin crew about her allergy, who would make an announcement on the flight.

When Mattioli caught a KM Malta Airlines flight from Malta to Munich on September 22 for a business trip, she did not encounter any problems when she asked the cabin crew to make an announcement.

But the crew suggested she send an e-mail to the airline to inform them of her allergy in advance, before she caught the return flight to Malta the following day.

She e-mailed the airline, which replied that it would make an announcement on board and advised her to consult a doctor “to discuss the risks involved and what can be done to minimise them. This may include… carrying an epinephrine/adrenaline auto injector, like an EpiPen, in your cabin baggage, for use in an emergency allergy reaction”.

The airline’s website, under ‘Important Allergen Information’ also states: “If prescribed an epinephrine/adrenaline auto injector, like an EpiPen, you must carry this with you, in your cabin baggage for use in the case of an emergency allergic reaction.”

Air travel poses particular dangers for people with severe allergies because even small traces of allergens in a confined cabin can trigger life-threatening reactions within minutes.

But Mattioli, an Italian national who has been living in Malta for 12 years, said her doctor never prescribed her an EpiPen, but only oral antihistamines, which she had with her at all times.

Therefore, when it was time to board the return flight the following day, she did what she normally does and only took her pills on the flight.

However, once she got on the aircraft and informed the cabin crew of her allergy, one of the crew members told her that unless she has an EpiPen, she cannot fly.

What the airline’s website says under ‘Important Allergen Information’.

‘I missed my son’s first day of school’

“I told them that I don’t have an EpiPen because my doctor never prescribed me one. So I was told: ‘Today you’re not going to fly’”.

Mattioli said she tried reasoning with the flight attendant: “But she just laughed at me and got security.”

“I felt humiliated. I was crying, everyone was looking at me. I felt completely lost as I was in another country where I didn’t know anyone,” she said, adding that her managing director chose to disembark the aircraft with her.

Mattioli was left with no other option but to book a hotel room and book a flight for the following day, at her own expense.

“The worst thing is that I had to miss my son’s first day of school. We had a call, and he asked me why I wasn’t there. It broke my heart,” she said.

The airline sent her an e-mail saying that she would need an EpiPen if she wanted to board her new flight. So, to prevent this from happening again, she urgently contacted her GP who sent her a prescription for an EpiPen.

But once she got on the plane and informed the cabin crew about her allergy again, the crew said they had no idea who she was, and they had no problem issuing an announcement to the plane.

Furious with the way she was treated, she sent multiple e-mails to the airline but said that she has only received “dismissive replies” offering no apology or explanation for what happened.

“It’s not about the money. It’s more about how this is not the right way to treat someone,” she said.

Questions were sent to KM Malta Airlines who replied saying it is in “active communication with Ms Samantha Mattioli to resolve the matter directly”.