A woman says she was removed from a Jet2 flight after cabin crew spotted that she was “sweating”.
Helen Taylor, 56, was due to fly from Newcastle to Rome with her husband on 2 October for a much-anticipated minibreak.
The mother from Chester-le-Street, who suffers from type 2 diabetes and is currently going through the menopause, boarded the plane without issue.
But she says that on the way back from the toilet she felt slightly dizzy and started sweating as she had just eaten for the first time that day.
“I had just eaten after not eating all day and I have type 2 diabetes, so it is just my blood sugars relevelling. All I [needed] is to sit down and have a drink of water and I will be perfectly fine,” she told Chronicle Live.
“Two minutes later, I was right as rain,”
Flight attendants, however, started to question whether she was fit to fly, with one saying she would have to undergo a medical examination, claims Ms Taylor.
Already starting to feel better, she reassured cabin crew that she would be fine within a matter of minutes.
“But she came back again 10 minutes later and said, ‘We’ve made a decision that you are going to have to leave the aircraft, we think you are a flight risk.’
“I said, ‘What, for having diabetes? Do I look ill now?’ and she said, ‘Well actually you don’t’.”
Ms Taylor alleges she spoke with the captain, who agreed she did appear fit to fly, but still endorsed the flight attendant’s decision to remove her from the flight.
“I had never heard anything so ridiculous in my life,” she said. “I cannot believe how we were treated. It was absolutely insane. They can’t do this to people.”
She added: “They were making a decision on unsubstantiated evidence because they were not doctors.”
The couple claim they were “frogmarched through the airport”, forced to return their duty-free purchases and questioned by Border Control.
Ms Taylor alleges that she attempted to contact Jet2 multiple times in the days following the incident in order to claim a refund for the £1,800 holiday, but initially received no response.
“I want to put this out there so, hopefully, Jet2 think twice before doing this to someone else,” she said, adding that she and her husband are loyal Jet2 customers who have booked three trips with the operator next year.
Jet2 has confirmed it will now refund the cost of the holiday.
“After liaising with independent medical aviation specialists, our crew took this decision as the health, wellbeing and safety of our customers is always our first priority,” a spokesperson said. “However, after investigating further as a matter of absolute priority, we have been in touch with Ms Taylor to apologise and to refund her holiday as a gesture of goodwill.”
