To be amazed this family were allowed on the flight (Ryanair)

[sickflight87]

We were flying with Ryanair last week to go on holiday.

Before boarding the plane, we heard them calling cleaners to our boarding gate. As we got closer, there was a young boy who had been sick all over the floor. He clearly had a fever and wasn't well at all.

We boarded the plane, and you guessed it, the family were sat really near us. Before the plane even took off, he was sick 2 more times.

During the flight, he was sick every hour. The Mum said 'it is such a shame he has a bug at the start of our holiday'.

I am just amazed that he was allowed to fly when visibly unwell with a sickness bug.

I am absolutely amazed we didn't catch it but I bet other people did. I thought it was SO unfair that he was allowed to fly, potentially infecting so many people on that plane and ruining holidays people have looked forward to all year. I know kids aren't allowed to fly with chickenpox, so why can they with a sickness bug?

I don’t understand why so many people think food poisoning isn’t contagious. The bacteria/virus (I.e salmonella, E. coli, norovirus) that is causing the vomiting and diarrhoea associated with food poisoning can absolutely be passed on through person to person contact or via contaminated surfaces. Norovirus is a cause of food poisoning and spreads like wild fire!

I wish they would bring back better controls about people boarding a flight. I also wish that people would understand their own situation a bit better, and adjust their plans to suit rather than expecting around them to just "suck it up". I get that now and again people (and particularly children, people with allergies, pregnant women, travel sick people) can throw up unexpectedly. Made worse these days because many airlines don't have sick bags (so airlines need to sort this, and people need to sort this by being prepared). I travel a lot, and have recently had a woman next to me, who I suspect was frightened of flying, and it hit some turbulence, she was sick, and then seem to pass out completely with her eyes rolling back in her head. it was awful, the seatbelt signs were on and the cabin crew properly strapped in (fair enough, but what do you do?). I have also had a man who clearly had had too much to drink and pissed himself. It's grim for all concerned. There are plenty of stories about planes that have had to land unexpectedly. (mainly drunk air-rage) I am not sure some of it isn't avoidable if everyone put their minds to it. And yes, the situation you describe OP sounds awful, for you and the child concerned xx

Another own goal from the Ryanair head the balls 🤦🏻‍♀️

But you travelled back with a contagious child no problem!

The Mum said 'it is such a shame he has a bug at the start of our holiday'. Who genuinely speaks like this?! It isn't a natural way to speak at all.

clearly had a fever If there are any clinicians here, could I ask, genuinely, why are thermometers used if one can "clearly see" a fever? Surely it would make raking someone's temperature a total waste of time?

Bringing a bug on the outbound flight is “I don’t want to miss my holiday”

Bringing a bug on the homebound flight is “ I no longer have any accommodation and need to get home for work and other responsibilities”

They are slightly different scenarios.

I would write to Ryanair and complain that this was a public health hazard, and that whilst you sympathise with the family and the poor child airlines have a duty of care to all their passengers and shouldn't have allowed a clearly unwell passenger onboard.

"From a medical POV being known to have a contagious disease is a clear cut solid reason for the crew to deny boarding, other than that it's a judgement call by those responsible."

And yet plenty of people now board and go on holiday with COVID and the like then it's got to live with risk, trust your immune system etc.

This is a similar scenario just with more obvious symptoms...

This happened to us too a few years ago flying to Kefalonia. Across the way from another family where child was repeatedly sick throughout the flight. We did not catch anything thankfully.

Playing Devils advocate for a minute one of the problems here is in an increasingly letigious society the airlines need to be at least a little careful about denying boarding.

Someone known to have a contagious disease is an easy one because many port/national health authorities deny individuals travel in those circumstances...

Being drunk on an aircraft is in itself an offence so the airline has legal top cover there..

Other than that it's perhaps less clear cut.

I think a lot of folks think airlines have almost unlimited powers to deny boarding but the reality is they (or the crew) do have to be able to justify the decision if someone decides to challenge it.

Did RyanAir charge for the sick bags.

That's a euro fifty please.......

But OP is talking about a young child who also had a fever, and wasn’t in a moving vehicle.
And food poisoning is often just a guess in the sense that if you have a young child vomiting, you’re really just hoping it’s a food poisoning cause that is less contagious (but still not actually not contagious).

Well I think you can look at a child and see that they look feverish. But also if you’re on a flight near the family for several hours, you could hear them mention it (“he feels very warm, do we have any calpol” or whatever)

I was a mum in this situation but we were actually on the flight. For whatever reason we had been queuing a long time in the tunnel that takes you to the plane. We were in Dalaman coming home and it was so hot. DD did say when queuing that she was hot and felt sick, but so did I tbh as it was so warm. After 40 minutes we were sat in our seats and DD fell asleep instantly, which at 10 years old I did think was unusual. 15 minutes later we’re starting to taxi and she was soooo sick. Literally went everywhere. Luckily, it was only water but still, not good. The crew were in their seats so I used her blanket to clean everything up, DD fell back asleep.

In the air I called the crew for sick bags, and they did help clean things up. This was Jet2, and they were really helpful. The sickness continued throughout the flight, and they would actually come and take the sick bags off me to dispose of them. It was a very long 4 hours, which didn’t end even when we got home. It turned out to be Covid, and even though Covid restrictions were long gone, I did inform Jet2 as soon as I found out so if necessary, they could alert anyone (not sure if they did).

One thing the crew member did say however, is that if she had vomited in the tunnel, or in the entrance to the aircraft, they would not have let her travel. Said it was their policy, and that I would have needed to say in Dalaman whilst my other dd and partner flew home. And tbh, I think that is the right thing to do. My DD had Covid (no other symptoms), and could have taken the whole plane down with her and I felt terrible. So in this instance, I would feel the same as OP.

I once became very ill during a flight vomiting etc I believe they managed to move the other person in our row. I absolutely do not believe I would have been allowed to fly had that actually started in the airport preflight ( quite rightly)

You can't tell someone has a fever just by looking at them. If you've been sick, no matter what the reason you generally look rough.
It could have been anxiety or travel sickness or heat or sweets.
I get it's grim but I would automatically assume it's a contagious bug.

One thing the crew member did say however, is that if she had vomited in the tunnel, or in the entrance to the aircraft, they would not have let her travel

That highlights one of the issues with this sort of incident...the full story maybe becomes clearer with the benefit of hindsight/more info as time progresses and what was a reasonable decision an hour or so back might not look quite so good now.

The crew can only really make a decision based on what they see...

In the scenario described by the OP (if I'm understanding it correctly) if the gate staff didn't say anything to the crew it's possible the first they knew about a medical problem of some sort was on taxy out and it would not be unreasonable to maybe think motion sickness, or similar, if all they knew about was the vomiting.

They're not going to return to the gate for that.

Now if on boarding the Mum had said to the crew the child had just thrown up twice and was running a temperature a few more questions might have been asked....

My ds2 is sick on every flight, particularly early flights
he will be sick constantly, sweating, shaking, no colour

once he’s off he’s fine

its getting better as he gets older (now 16) but I’ve spent the last 6 years with people moving away from us whilst I try and explain it’s just a plane thing

But your homeward flight is someone else's outbound fought/ business trip etc.

Well if being sick is part of a disability then it's discriminatory.

Same way it would be if they refused to let people who needed continence products onboard. Sitting next to an adult who has soiled themselves isn't pleasant either.

my dd has puked on planes a couple of times. First flight, was young and wolfed some food down way too fast and threw it back up. Second time, a few years later, she was nervous and tired. Neither time was it a bug. Planes used to have sick bags in every seat pocket.

I do think it’s very selfish to get on a plane with an actual sickness bug though.

You can’t really blame people wanting to move away though surely? I wouldn’t choose to sit next to anyone puking even if it wasn’t contagious. I’d appreciate you explaining it wasn’t contagious but if I was able to move I still would.