Flight made emergency landing after woman with shellfish allergy served prawns

A transatlantic flight to New York was forced to make an emergency landing after a passenger with a severe shellfish allergy claimed to have been served shrimp.

Doreen Benary, 41, says she flagged the ailment to cabin crew in the Singapore Airlines flight from Germany, which had to be diverted to France on October 8 last year.

She became ‘violently ill’ and was rushed for ‘emergency medical treatment at two separate medical facilities’, according to a federal lawsuit.

Benary, who works as a physician, is now seeking ‘full, fair and reasonable damages’, claiming the ‘adverse reaction to shrimp and the consequential injuries suffered’ were the carrier’s fault.

Her complaint states she told flight attendants she had a food allergy, ‘specifically to shrimp’, after taking her seat in the business class cabin, according to the Independent.

‘Despite the aforesaid warnings, during the course of the subject flight’s meal service, a member of [the] cabin crew served [Benary] a meal containing shrimp,’ it adds.

But she was ‘unaware’ of the ingredient ‘until she had ingested a portion’ of it, the file claims, and ‘nearly immediately’ fell ‘violently ill, requiring the aircraft to perform an emergency diversion to Paris’.

Doreen’s complaint claims it was the cabin crew’s responsibility to ‘be aware of the seriousness’ of passengers’ food allergies and to ‘respond appropriately’.

‘Thus, when a cabin crew member was placed on notice of a passenger’s food allergy, said crew member had a duty of care to ensure that meals containing such allergens or their ingredients were not served to that particular passenger,’ it adds.

Her lawsuit claims ‘she questioned the flight attendant who admitted that she had made an error and apologised’.

Metro has contacted Singapore Airlines for comment.

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