Emirates ‘sorry’ for offloading epileptic teen

dubai — Emirates has expressed regret to the mother of a 17-yearold teenager with epilepsy, who was asked to disembark from a flight from Dubai to France. In a statement sent to Khaleej Times on Saturday, Emirates said: “We are very sorry for any distress and inconvenience caused to Ms (Isabelle) Kumar and her family.

“Such situations are usually difficult for operational staff to assess, and they opted to act in the best interest of our passengers’ safety as well as on advice from our medical team. Our customer service team has been in touch with the family, and we offered them complimentary hotel stay while in transit and rebooked them on another flight departing on July 26.”

According to media reports, Eli, son of Euronews journalist Isabelle Kumar, had boarded the flight on Wednesday from Dubai to France, the final leg of a journey from New Zealand via Australia.

According to a report in The

Guardian, Kumar asked for a seat with a vacant seat next to it in case he had a seizure. In response to this request, the airline asked for a medical certificate.

“I couldn’t initially find the certificate, but I called the doctor (and) got them to email the certificate, which she did immediately,” Kumar was quoted as saying.

Calling the experience “very traumatic”, the Euronews journalist tweeted: “Our son has epilepsy: we had told you (Emirates), just come 14-hr from Melbourne, got his doctor on the phone & medical clearance while still on board. He has #autism & severe learning difficulties (sic).”

Such situations are usually difficult for operational staff to assess, and they opted to act in the best interest of our passengers’ safety as well as on advice from our medical team.”

Emirates spokesperson