Pret inquest: Flight crew did not use defibrillator on dying girl

Natasha Ednan-Laperouse died in a hospital in Nice after collapsing on a BA flight

Flight attendants did not use a defibrillator on a girl who suffered a fatal allergic reaction because they chose to cover the plane's emergency exits, an inquest has heard.

Natasha Ednan-Laperouse, 15, went into cardiac arrest on a flight after eating a baguette from Pret A Manger in 2016.

Staff on the British Airways plane said it was too dangerous to fetch the defibrillator during landing.

Natasha had suffered an allergic reaction to the sesame in the baguette.

The teenager, from Fulham, west London, went into cardiac arrest minutes before her flight from Heathrow to Nice landed on 17 July 2016.

'Doors take priority'

BA head of cabin crew John Harris said it was a formal requirement of his training to ensure that cabin crew were in position on landing so they could get passengers off the aircraft in case of an emergency.

He said: "Without sounding harsh, the coverage of doors takes priority.

"There were only five cabin crew on that particular flight and the aircraft had four sets of doors, totalling eight doors, and one cabin crew member was out of action.

"So we literally had the minimum number of crew to cover those doors."

BA flight attendant Mario Ballestri told the inquest it would have been too dangerous to get the defibrillator from the other end of the aircraft.

Mr Ballestri had helped a junior doctor as he tried to resuscitate Natasha, West London Coroner's Court heard.

A defibrillator was used on her after landing, when paramedics arrived, but she died in hospital in Nice later.

Rules about the labelling of ingredients were questioned at the inquest

Earlier in the inquest Coroner Dr Sean Cummings raised concerns over rules which meant Pret did not have to provide ingredient labelling on the baguette Natasha bought at Heathrow Terminal 5 shortly before take-off.

When food is handmade and packaged on the premises, businesses are not required to put allergen information on each individual food item, the hearing was told.

Hillingdon Council food safety officer Bridget Saunders told the court: "I think the distinction was made really to deal with small, independent high street premises which perhaps prepare food on site and put it into a bag to sell to customers coming in."

She added: "The regulations make no distinction with Pret, with their huge turnover."

Dr Cummings said it was "strange" that Pret, "an organisation that sells 218 million items (a year)", should be able to benefit from the same regulation as "a local sandwich shop".

"A cynic might think it was almost a device to get around regulations relating to identifying food allergens," he added.

Mrs Saunders said she found no issues with the way Pret provided allergy information during an inspection of the Heathrow branch in February 2016.

Natasha's father claims there was no label on the fridge the day his daughter died - although the manager that day said he was "confident and sure" stickers were in place.

Natasha had pleaded with her father to help her as she struggled to breathe following a reaction to the sesame "hidden" in the baguette dough, the court heard previously.

The inquest is expected to last until Friday.