A British traveller had a harrowing experience recently when he vomited 30 times during a six-hour Etihad Airlines flight. Cameron Callaghan, 27, was on a connecting flight from Manchester to Abu Dhabi, on his way to Bangkok, Thailand in January when he ate a “tomato, cheesy, chicken pasta” which reportedly gave him food poisoning, according to a report in New York Post.
Mr Callaghan had already eaten an egg sandwich prior to the start of the journey but after the flight was delayed by five hours, he decided to take up the airline on its offer of the pasta. Other passengers were also served the dish which had an offputting stench.
“It ruined the first few days of my holiday, “Mr Callaghan told Kennedy News, adding: “It did smell a bit weird but all plane food kind of does.”
“I believe the food had been sitting out since the original time the plane was supposed to take off and not been stored properly.”
A few minutes later, he started experiencing severe gastrointestinal turbulence causing him pain.
“I had diarrhea twice and 10 minutes after that I was just constantly throwing up for the duration of the flight,” said Mr Callaghan. “I threw up probably about 30 times.”
After the flight landed in Abu Dhabi, Mr Callaghan was so weak that he couldn’t lift his head and had to be ushered out.
“They had to get a wheelchair and they wheeled me to the medical room in Abu Dhabi’s airport,” added Mr Callaghan, who was administered an IV with an anti-sickness drip.
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Etihad’s response
In the wake of the incident, Etihad issued a statement claiming that its food could not have been responsible for Mr Callaghan’s food poisoning.
“We take all such matters very seriously and investigate thoroughly. Our food on this flight, as with all our flights, was prepared and stored under strict temperature-controlled conditions to ensure safety and quality,” an Etihad spokesperson said.
“We did not receive any reports of illness from other passengers on this flight who were served the same meal. Our first priority is always the safety and wellbeing of our passengers and crew.”
However, Mr Callaghan was far from impressed and demanded a refund for the “flight from hell” along with an apology as reparations.