A 16-year-old Pennsylvania boy died on a Qatar Airways flight from Doha to New York after a crewmember who was told about his peanut, dairy and fish allergies reportedly assured him that a sandwich was safe to eat.
His family says the medical response onboard failed, too: after the boy’s nebulizer didn’t help, an injection from the crew did not nothing, and they say that the onboard portable oxygen tank did not work. He was believed dead soon afterward, according to the family’s federal lawsuit, and remained laid out behind his father and sister for the rest of the flight with the oxygen mask still on his face.
What The Family Says Happened
Jason Hu was returning home from China with his father and sister on August 21, 2024. They had flown Qatar Airways from China to Doha and connected to flight QR701 to New York JFK.
- Jason had allergies to peanuts, dairy products and fish.
- During sandwich service, both Jason and his father allegedly told the crew about all three allergies.
- The crew allegedly said that the food offered was suitable for him.
- Immediately after eating it, Jason had trouble breathing. He used his nebulizer, received what the complaint calls an “unknown injection” from a crewmember, and collapsed. The lawsuit refer to a nonfunctional EpiPen. It’s not clear to me whether there was a drug that failed to help, or a malfunctioning delivery device.
- The crew produced portable oxygen, but the tank supposedly was not operational.
- The crew contacted MedAire, which coordinated emergency services at JFK. Jason was pronounced dead on arrival.
The Montreal Convention governs injuries and deaths during international air travel. The family must prove a death caused by an “accident” onboard, which is an unexpected or unusual event external to the passenger and not merely an allergic reaction.
In Olympic Airways v. Husain, the Supreme Court held that a flight attendant’s unusual refusal to help an asthmatic passenger avoid cigarette smoke could be the external accident, even though his medical vulnerability and the cabin air itself were not unusual. Being told the sandwich was safe seems like the liability trigger.
In Schaefer-Condulmari v. US Airways, a passenger said she ordered a gluten-free meal and was assured it was gluten-free, then went into anaphylactic shock. The court held that serving an allergen contrary to a passenger’s order can be a treaty “accident.” But US Airways’ records said that she ordered a vegetarian meal, the flight attendant denied the assurance, and the airline ultimately won at trial.
It seems like this case comes down to questions like what was actually in the sandwich, what exactly did the crewmember say, what did the family disclose to the airline, and did the onboard response affect the outcome?
Just last year a mother sued Qatar Airways claiming that a flight attendant fed her three-year-old daughter a KitKat after being warned about her dairy and nut allergies. The mother used her own EpiPen and the child survived, though she later spent two days in intensive care.
In another case, the family of an 85-year-old vegetarian says Qatar had no vegetarian meal left, told him to “eat around” the meat, and he choked. That flight also contacted MedAire, allegedly delayed diversion, and the passenger died after landing in Edinburgh.
That’s awful. If the airline is at-fault, hopefully the family will recover via the Montreal Convention.
That said, if you or a family member have severe life-threatening allergies like this, don’t rely on others, carry your own EpiPens, too.
I suppose if you actually have life threatening allergies to anything you insert into your mouth, you and your parents would never put anything in the mouth that wasn’t thoroughly vetted.
If it were my kids, that means ALL AIRPLANE FOOD WOULD BE A NO-GO BECAUSE MY CHILD COULD DIE.
Have we lost all sense of personal responsibility?
This isn’t 100% the fault of Qatar here.
Very sad, but if you are that sensitive, you and your parents should have known not to eat any food offered!
I’ve read this kind of story so many times. and I’ve concluded that if you have allergies, how can you trust food provided by others? obviously the food is okay to them, they’d say it’s okay to eat.
@Mike — Under the Montreal Convention, wrongful death and personal injury claims follow *comparative*, not *contributory* negligence, so it doesn’t have to literally be 100% the airlines’ fault for the victim’s family to recover. Like, if a court decides the airline was 70% at fault and the passenger was 30% at fault, the airline may still need to pay 70%. Obviously, a lot ‘depends,’ here. Anyway, how much does the state of Qatar pay to insert plausible deniability and doubt on blogs?
@Don G — Wait, are you guys doing this for ‘free’? Oof. If you’re do ‘charity,’ please consider doing it for the vulnerable (such as those who lost their child), not a petro-chemical monarchy…
Airlines lie all of the time. It is part of the culture. That being said, the family taking the words of the cabin crew on faith was not very clever. The victim should have taken a little bit of the sandwich that had all of the parts of the sandwich on it and found out if it created a negative reaction before eating the whole sandwich. A nebulizer is not an effective or recommended treatment for food allergies. The family should have had their own EpiPen at a minimum. May the victim rest in peace.
Unfortunate, but 100% the parents fault
WTF are the parents? They expect what a flight attendant to understand food allergies? It may be a pain but maybe bring food from home. Of course, why when I was a kid no kid had food allergies and today it’s common begs a question. A pointy one at that.
Retired physician here. The amount of allergen that can cause an allergic reaction is minute. Taking a small taste isn’t a good strategy. If you have a severe allergy, especially with a prior history of anaphylaxis, don’t try the questionable food. So many hands and kitchenware items touch your food in a restaurant or central food service that there will always be risk. If a worker moves from the general food prep area to the “no nut” area without washing their hands, changing their apron, or if they bring their favorite chopping knife with them the result can be sufficient contamination to trigger an anaphylactic reaction in a vulnerable person. Yes, carry your own Epipen (two if travelling). For air travel pack commercially prepared snacks that you’ve eaten before, and a sandwich you’ve personally made (if possible). At home get to know your local restaurants and what their kitchen is like. One of my past patients used a specific restaurant because a member of their staff had a child with life threatening allergies and understood the need for good kitchen practices. The mortality risk of an anapylactic reaction is less than one percent, but you’re more vulnerable in the air due to distant medical facilities. You can have all kinds of fun in your life with just a few precautions.
As a food safety auditor, I get really tired of having to evaluate allergen control programs. Never had them when I started in food safety, never needed them back then. Nowadays, I spend about an hour an audit evaluating allergen controls and allergen labeling. Undeclared allergens are the biggest cause of food recalls in the world, which also complicate my life. Do I care about the people affected? No. We’re going against natural selection by allowing those people to live. Weed them from the gene pool and make my life simpler.
If he had such severe allergies why would they not provide his own food
The family didn’i carry an Epipen? I do assume they can be carried onboard…
Yeesh. The victim-blaming on here is pretty disgusting. (If there is karma, may you all be treated exactly how you think others should be treated…) Thank goodness most courts of law are not mere courts of public opinion; otherwise, we’d probably still be burning ‘witches’ in 2026.
So sorry, but if your life depends on ingredients, it’s on you to ensure what you’re eating won’t kill you. Sorry for your condition, but ultimately it’s on you. Zero sympathy. If you’re so sensitive then control what you eat.
@Mantis — Dr. Toboggan… your lack of bedside manner… actually, for you, pretty on-brand.
IDK, If it were me, and my kid had severe reactions to certain foods, I wouldn’t trust the airline or the FA’s word that onboard food did not contain certain items because they simply have no clue. And given the situation of a trans Atlantic flight with no medical care potentially for hours, I think I’d bring a “known” food source along on the trip to safeguard my child from the possibility of exposure. So sad, but 100% avoidable. Bad on both, but the parents should rethink their strategy. RIP
@D Fray — “100% avoidable” … Sure, stay home, don’t travel; never serve meals on a flight, etc. But, that’s not realistic, nor is it the context, here. (Just sayin’, whether they know it or not, Qatar Airways has a phenomenal unpaid PR/legal team… if only courts relied on gossip from aviation blogs.)
@1990
You assume I give Qatar a hall pass, I do not, and they are certainly going to pay for the indiscretion and they are probably 90% at fault (or the FA is for misreading or representing what was served). All I am saying is, if I had a child or young adult with severe sensitivities to certain foods, I would not let them eat highly processed foods (touched potentially by dozens of people) that could have come in contact with an allergen even by accident while taking a trans Atlantic flight with no medical services available for hours. Poor planning and safeguarding by the parents. I’m not in any way standing up for Qatar, this was a horrible thing.
@D Fray — Sure. And, it’s very possible, a court will determine a 90/10-split.
My question is what the parents arranged with the airline for a special meal before the flight. Did they disclose to the airline the nature and severity of their child’s allergy? Did they get agreement from the airline for a meal that contained no allergens? Did they arrange for seating away from any nut use (if that would be sufficient)?
I suspect not. The parents bear the responsibility here. Relying on a flight attendant for information about the contents of pre-packed airline food is irresponsible. Knowing the medical issues involved and not suitably planning for their children is irresponsible. This was likely not a spur-of-the-moment trip.
If I am the trial judge, this case is dismissed at the pleading stage. And shame on the plaintiffs’ lawyer for bringing this kind of lawsuit in the first place.
@1990 – “The victim-blaming on here is pretty disgusting.”
So is accusing people who disagree with you of being paid by Qatar without evidence.
“If there is karma, may you all be treated exactly how you think others should be treated…”
This is kind of funny, given your typical attitude to people who say things you don’t like.
It’s not “victim blaming”. It’s just pointing out how knowing the extreme danger to their child the parents apparently lacked the sense good sense to take reasonable precautions.
So very sad.
I agree that the airline bears some responsibility. But I also believe in personal responsibility, and with allergies like that you should carry your own epi-pen and not trust what people say about the food. We’ve all seen the food labels that say “prepared in a factory with” xyz allergens.
But I have to wonder if this particular family didn’t realize how severe this kid’s allergies were. Maybe they thought he might have a sneezing attack or hives, but never realized he could die. So cut them some slack. It’s hard to live with health issues like this. You don’t want to live like a hermit, you need to try to have a life. But travel is difficult.
As a parent of a child who suffered an allergy event on a transatlantic flight from eating airline food, I understand why the parents may have reacted the way they did. In my daughter’s case, she had never developed anaphylaxis, but did have instances of asthma after eating food she was allergic to. It was a trial and error process. The first time, my wife gave her the runoff drip from an ice cream cone at 6 months old. It turned out she was allergic to dairy,.
On the airline, the dish she was served had peas hidden below the top later of the dish, but she didn’t see them until after she had taken a bite. She started shaking, and in retrospect, I think she was so scared that her body produced a lot of adrenaline (similar to what’s in an Epipen), which caused the shaking. We contacted the flight attendant, and the pilot was notified. The food quickly went through her system, and after a trip to the bathroom, she was OK. She continued to develop new food allergies as she grew up. In high school, she was skin and bones because she was afraid to eat almost everything. She had allergy testing done, and found that some foods she thought she was allergic to, that she really wasn’t, and started gaining wait again.
If the recent incident had been the child”s first incident of anaphylaxis, his parents may have never had the scare to understand the full severity of the issue, like we didn’t.
Now that she is an adult, she does not eat anything she hasn’t cooked herself, with a few exceptions of well vetted products. She keeps two epipens near her at all times. Traveling is difficult, as she doesn’t eat on airlines, just in case. Then, she has to buy groceries at the destination and get a room with a kitchen, and cook before she eats. She has still never had to use her Epipen. I do worry about her when she gets older and no longer has the energy to cook.
@Brian L. — As I said, if they aren’t being paid, oof, carrying water for an absolute monarchy for free. Yikes. And, you think karma’s a lie. Got it.
@Michael Fitzgerald — It seems like they did take precautions, but obviously that wasn’t good enough, which is why the airline likely has some culpability.
@Retired Lawyer — Really? Dead child on a flight, and you’d ‘shame’ the victims’ lawyer for even filing a case? Maybe retirement suits you best.
So many experts on here! How convenient. Anyone who claims to be a food auditor or allergy expert or retired lawyer (what, not good enough to pretend to be a retired attorney-at-law?) is making it up as they go along.
People who say this was 100% on the family are people who have been treated unfairly in life and have a massive chip on their shoulder. Tragic.
i have a family member that is allergic to eggs and gluten She says , It is my life i have to make sure there is nothing in there or may die. I do not trust others when playing Russian Roulette.
@Retired Lawyer It wouldn’t matter if the parents had informed Qatar Airways in advance of the flight; Qatar doesn’t provide ANY nut-free meals, unlike, say, JAL or ANA. Qatar also does not announce passenger allergies either at the gate or on board, so it’s one of the worst airlines to fly for passengers with nut allergies, but this family may not have been aware of this or may have been cost-constrained such that it was the most economical option.
Agree with @WearyWatchdog and @1990 that most commenters seem to have an appalling lack of sympathy for the family. Just keep in mind that people can develop anaphylactic allergies after childhood. Know someone who developed an anaphylactic allergy in his late 20s, to something that he’d never been allergic to at all previously.
Lets all take a step back and consider a few things.
1. We don’t know what Qatar gives Main Cabin (assuming economy?) flight crews in regards to food descriptions. Its not like the Q suites where they have almost manuals on each food item. I know in some circles, the catering is loaded and only a description of each is given to the crew, some airlines like Copa & Alaska will list the ingredients and/or allergens on each food item. Now, if there WAS a food label, considering both departure points (China, Doha) – do we know if it was in a language well spoken/readable by the FA? I just got back from Turkey and some of the stuff we bought doesn’t have any English on it at all.
2. Was there a language barrier? Most of QR staff are international and are not native English speakers. And then I circle back around to the label, if we have one.
3. Family should have had epipens. Seems like they were returning HOME from a vacation – and what we don’t know is if they already used them, or had one (story doesn’t quite tell everything).
DOH to the US is quite a long flight. Lots of opportunity for things to go wrong and then have to wait for help. No family ever plans on their child dying inflight. And to go back to #3, I thought most airlines have multiple epipens and other things in the med kit that can help. I’m also surprised that no other passengers had an epi-pen on board (especially with 300+ folks on board).
Lots of questions still, no judgement from me. But my friends who all work in catering (mostly management) are all VERY well aware that food allergens to this degree are mostly focused on the North American continent and are a sore spot for their airlines to make sure that something like this doesn’t happen inflight.
Maybe the parents wanted to get a payoff if the airline didn’t live up to the promises of the food being allergen free. Maybe they were tired of having to deal with the allergen issue every time. Two birds with one stone. Maybe me just being cynical but maybe there were hidden motives.
@jns — Ah, based on your recent comment at the Jet2 head-butting post, I thought you’d’ve enjoyed our discussion on ‘karma’ above. Oh well…
The most upsetting part is that the family had apparently warned the airline about the allergy beforehand. When the risk is that serious, passengers should be able to trust that the message reaches everyone handling their food. It’s hard to imagine how frightening that flight must have been.