Cameron Callaghan was flying with Etihad Airways from Manchester to Bangkok via Abu Dhabi in January when he became unwell.
The former delivery driver had eaten an egg sandwich three hours before the plane and was served a pasta meal after take-off. The ‘flight from hell’ had been delayed for five hours and the man reckons the food hadn’t been stored properly during that time.
“When we finally got on, they offered us some food so I ate that and put a movie on. It was a tomato, cheesy, chicken pasta,” Cameron explained.
“It did smell a bit weird but all plane food kind of does.”
He believes the food wasn’t stored properly. (Kennedy News and Media)
Etihad Airways insist they ‘prepared and stored the food under strict temperature-controlled conditions’ and no other passengers who had the same food reported issues.
But he says about 20 minutes later he had ‘diarrhoea twice’ and then was just ‘constantly throwing up for the duration of the flight’.
The Bolton lad continued: “I threw up probably about 30 times. I had to sit at the back of the plane with an air hostess while she kept the toilet free for me.
“I was going to the toilet every five minutes, laying in the foetal position and towards the end of the flight, I’d emptied my body so much that I couldn’t even stand up.”
Cameron claims that by the time they landed at Zayed International Airport, Abu Dhabi, he was so dehydrated he couldn’t even life his head up.
“So they had to get a wheelchair and they wheeled me to the medical room in Abu Dhabi’s airport,” he added.
He’s sure the egg butty beforehand ‘definitely wasn’t the cause’ as was sat in the airport for three hours after it and ‘felt completely fine’.
Cameron says it ruined the first days of his big holiday. (Kennedy News and Media)
“I didn’t even eat the night before because I was stressed because of the delayed flight,” the traveller said.
A doctor at the airport assessed him and gave him an IV and anti-sickness drip, with the incident leaving him feeling ‘so weak’ at the start of his holiday.
“The next two or three days after arriving in Bangkok I was just bedbound,” Cameron said. “It was only on the third day I actually left the hotel and started exploring.”
Sure he wouldn’t have been sick so soon after eating the pasta ‘if it didn’t come from their food’, the man wants a refund for the flight from Eithad Airways.
“I want acknowledgement about the food poisoning and for them to say sorry,” he said, adding the claim: “They’ve not taken the food poisoning seriously, they’ve not taken the proper precautions. It’s unprofessional how they’ve handled everything.”
He says he was so dehydrated he couldn’t lift his head up. (Kennedy News and Media)
Cameron says it was ‘embarrassing’ on the flight and ‘ruined the first few days’ of the holiday he has planned for the last three years.
Now, he says he’ll ‘starve myself’ on the flight back so it doesn’t happen again.
An Etihad Airways spokesperson said: “We are aware of the recent report of a passenger falling ill on board our flight from Manchester on 06 January, 2025.
“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.
“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.”
