Alice Gibbs is a Newsweek Senior Internet Trends & Culture Reporter based in the U.K. For the last two years she has specialized in viral trends and internet news, with a particular focus on animals, human interest stories, health, and lifestyle. Alice joined Newsweek in 2022 and previously wrote for The Observer, Independent, Dazed Digital and Gizmodo. Languages: English. You can get in touch with Alice by emailing alice.gibbs@newsweek.com.
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content.
?? Voice is AI-generated. Inconsistencies may occur.
A flight from Hawaii to Florida took an unexpected turn when a man eating mixed nuts became the center of an in-flight dispute, as a nearby passenger explained they had allergies.
According to a viral Reddit post on the popular r/AITAH, a woman informed flight attendants that she had a nut allergy and did not want the snack to be served. The airline staff acknowledged her request, and noted that she had only checked a box for "ingestion allergy" in the pre-flight medical form, not specifying that the allergy was airborne. As a result, mixed nuts continued to be handed out to all passengers.
The man next to her, who shared his experience on Reddit under the handle JetPlane_88, explained: "The attendants asked her if we needed to make an emergency landing or if she required medical attention. She said no."
But when the nuts were served, the passenger wasn't happy. "The woman asked me if I could not eat the mixed nuts. Everyone around us had an open plastic cup of mixed nuts. I told her I wasn't sure how my eating them or not would help her in this situation. She said it was just a courtesy," he wrote.
To keep the peace, he explained he offered to move to the back of the airplane to eat, and while the woman agreed to the compromise, she later branded him an "a******."
The Reddit poster who wished to remain anonymous told Newsweek: "I shared this on Reddit because I was curious whether or not my experience was the norm.
"I found the reactions affirming. I was worried as I typed the post that I was clearly in the wrong and to receive so many responses saying the responsibility fell not on me or on the other passenger but actually on the airline was... unexpected."
This situation spotlights a growing issue in air travel: how to handle food allergies—particularly those that may be airborne—in an enclosed, shared space like an airplane cabin.
According to Food Allergy Research & Education (FARE), 6.2 million Americans are affected by peanut allergies, and nearly 4 million more by tree nuts, while emergency room visits tied to food allergies number in the millions annually.
Thankfully, deaths from nut allergies are rare, but do occur. In a 15-year New York City study between 2000 and 2014, there were 24 food allergy-related deaths, with peanuts implicated in 4 deaths (17 per cent) and tree nuts or seeds in two deaths (8 per cent).
Dr. Daniel Atkinson is the clinical lead at online healthcare company Treated.com. He told Newsweek. "Anaphylactic reactions can cause a dangerous drop in blood pressure and the airways to swell and close, so they can be incredibly serious, and life-threatening."
Atkinson explained that recent research has found that severe nut allergens are more commonly triggered through ingestion or physical contact than airborne exposure.
He explained that there could be a risk to the passenger with the allergy: "In this specific case, the risk of physical contact is there because the passenger eating nuts is sitting next to the passenger, probably in a cramped cabin, who has said they have an allergy - so it's possible a nut could fall onto the person and potentially trigger a reaction, or be transferred from the passengers hand onto a seat or table that the passenger with the allergy unknowingly touches."
After the incident, the passenger was prompted to share the story on Reddit to ask if he did handle the situation properly. The post amassed more than 9,000 upvotes since being shared last week, and the results were interesting as the majority sided with him.
"You were kind in moving to eat the nuts," one user commented, adding that if the woman's allergy was serious, "why the hell didn't she tell the airline?"
Others, especially those with nut allergies themselves, pointed out that more precautions can and should be taken. "I wear a mask on flights... I can have a mild reaction even just from someone eating nearby," another poster said.
"People are generally much more aware of severe allergies than they used to be, thanks to campaigns by allergy charities and organizations to raise awareness, but also thanks to research into allergies and better and wider access to health information through the internet. But there's still probably work to be done to help people understand severe allergies better," Atkinson said.
He warned that it is important for everyone to be wary of potential allergies, and said there is more that could be done. "For some people, getting on a plane with someone who has a severe allergy may be the first time they learn about what having a severe allergy means. Airlines could potentially include resources on severe allergies in their flight guides and brochures, to explain the needs of people with allergies and what other passengers can do (and not do) to help them," he said.
Update 04/30/25, 02:40 a.m. ET: This story was updated with comment from the Redditor.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Alice Gibbs is a Newsweek Senior Internet Trends & Culture Reporter based in the U.K. For the last two years she has specialized in viral trends and internet news, with a particular focus on animals, human interest stories, health, and lifestyle. Alice joined Newsweek in 2022 and previously wrote for The Observer, Independent, Dazed Digital and Gizmodo. Languages: English. You can get in touch with Alice by emailing alice.gibbs@newsweek.com.
Alice Gibbs is a Newsweek Senior Internet Trends & Culture Reporter based in the U.K. For the last two years she has specialized in viral trends and internet news, with a particular focus on animals, human interest stories, health, and lifestyle. Alice joined Newsweek in 2022 and previously wrote for The Observer, Independent, Dazed Digital and Gizmodo. Languages: English. You can get in touch with Alice by emailing alice.gibbs@newsweek.com.
Alice Gibbs is a Newsweek Senior Internet Trends & Culture Reporter based in the U.K. For the last two years ...
