This is obviously a tragic story but it strikes me the young lady was the victim of a chain of events and to some degree the crew were put in a difficult situation because of the decisions and actions of others. As I understand it ATM we are talking about a coroner’s court and I don’t yet see the need for a call of arms to the Union.

In defence of the crew, if they need one: if the cabin crew acted iaw with their medical training (which would have included dealing with the victim of anaphylactic shock) and the captain had time to obtain, consider, and if it was safe to do so, act upon whatever professional medical advice was available I’d expect the airline management (even at BA) to back them up.

That said it would have been a horrible situation to try and manage.

Agreed megan..for example the LHR-NCE sector is typically around 90 minutes (runway to runway) so without knowing exactly what was said and exactly when it was said I think it is wrong to start drawing conclusions about decisions to return/divert/continue to destination.

The article states that the flight landed 50 minutes after CPR was started. 50 minutes! Over mainland Europe.

If that is accurate then some big questions will be asked at the he inquest regarding what information/ when the flight crew were informed, and the decisions made during this period.

Of course she didn’t ”deserve it,” but TBH as a parent I am really genuinely puzzled that anyone would go into an airport sandwich shop and buy an off the shelf product, regardless of labelling, when this applies to themselves or one of their family..(from the DM) :

“Her father detailed for the hearing how he and his wife had trained Natasha from a young age to study ingredients and allergens and how they had changed their lifestyle to protect her from allergic reactions.
Natasha was severely allergic to dairy, banana, sesame seeds and nuts, the court heard.”

I wonder if anyone here with family experience of this sort of level of allergy to food products is able to comment on how they manage dietary requirements when travelling by air?

I suspect we’ll get enough eventually. With reference why he/she didn’t divert into XXX or YYY we as yet only have one account of timings and no evidence yet from the crew as to what they perceived and how communications were handled so maybe it would be wise to hang fire on questioning why the captain didn’t immediately divert into somewhere enroute. I guess one possibility is that by the time the captain was made fully aware of the gravity of the situation it is possible they were approaching TOD for NCE anyway, but that is just speculation on my part. I suspect all will become more clear when he/she gives evidence to the coroner...and as you say we haven’t even had the METARs or TAFs or NOTAMs yet...

(I’ll just add and state the blindingly obvious - having seen something serious and life threatening on a Longhaul Flight these situations aren’t always as straight forward as some Monday morning quarterbacks like to think..We were strongly advised by medics to overfly the nearest alternate to get to somewhere else with much better facilities that were much more likely to save life.....now that would have looked like an odd one in the press or to a coroner until explained).

edit to add update from The Evening Standard here:

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/p...-a3945466.html

Not sure about you,

But in circumstances like these (medical, or other), I as a pilot would much prefer an open flight deck where I can go out and see for myself, talk to the people involved (cabin crew, doctor, passenger) and judge it from there. All too often I feel the communication through the intercom is slow and not always clear.

That’s an easy decision to make if your told right away there’s a severe medical condition onboard, so I don’t see your point.

Yes, bottles and also on some aircraft plug in access to an oxygen “ring main”, all done for medical emergencies and other reasons. Some reports do mention attempts were made to administer oxygen to the girl in this case.

After talking about this case last night with somebody who has nursed in a U.K. A&E (“E.R.” In some parts of the world) I now understand that given what might happen to the body in a case of very severe anaphylactic shock getting an oxygen cylinder plus mask on the victim and/or simple CPR might not be enough. The measures that are then necessary to try and sustain life need to be done quickly and are not part of cabin crew training, certainly not where I work.

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That being said as soon as I receive a call of a medical situation developing I'm already setting up a diversion ready to pull the trigger. If it's looking like airways, breathing or circulation are involved, playing it safe, get on the bloody ground.

​​​​​​​Again, we don't know if much/anything was passed on to captain, and if not there's an explanation required by the CM.

I read this report with horror. With cpr being performed a catastrophic situation has developed. Whether the communication was flawed or the captain did not have the dm skill set to initiate an immediate diversion....With the time frame you have ory, gva, lys etc. You have to try. It should be obvious to point at the nearest concrete runway. You could not argue that the aforementioned airports are not in close proximity to top level hospitals. Tragic.

This is a rumour network, so what makes you the expletive deleted expert? A person has died, possibly preventable, conjecture is not unreasonable. I have actually been in this situation ( as captain ) and we were on the ground within 20 minutes - Paris Orly. If I were this girl’s parent I would want a few questions answered. Pompous bollox straight out of the pprune handbook. You were right about stupidity.

Wiggy, does BA use Medlink/Medaire or whatever you want to call it?

Conjecture having heard the whole story is not unreasonable.. I’m not sure dropping hints that the crew were deficient in the dm process or comms skills given what we know at lunchtime on Wednesday half way through the hearing is particularly helpful but as you say it is a rumour site....and if in the fullness of time we found it wasn’t optimal handled by the crew I’ll not be defending them...but TBH I don’t like lynchings on the basis of incomplete data..

Like you I’ve been “there” and had to handle similar in the real world so I guess even I am entitled to opinions on other people’s opinions......