{"id":400781,"date":"2026-01-08T23:57:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T23:57:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/400781\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T23:57:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T23:57:10","slug":"man-in-anaphylactic-shock-on-virgin-flight-to-was-pilbara-saved-by-crew-another-passenger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/400781\/","title":{"rendered":"Man in anaphylactic shock on Virgin flight to WA’s Pilbara saved by crew, another passenger"},"content":{"rendered":"

A routine flight to a mining hub in Western Australia has narrowly avoided an emergency landing amid a life-or-death scenario on board.<\/p>\n

Andrew Rawle, a resident of Newman, 1,170 kilometres north-east of Perth in the Pilbara region, found himself suffering anaphylactic shock minutes into a Virgin Australia flight to the remote mining town on Sunday, January 4.<\/p>\n

“I was offered some food by the cabin crew \u2014 a little plate of cheese and crackers,” Mr Rawle said.<\/p>\n

Mr Rawle, who has allergies to nuts and some medications, said he felt his throat closing.<\/p>\n

“I just immediately jumped up, knowing that in my hand luggage I had an EpiPen,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Very clearly, the cabin crew could see there was something wrong \u2026 I’d gone incredibly tomato red and I asked the cabin crew through a very strained voice: ‘Can I just quickly swing behind the curtain and jab myself in the leg?'”<\/p>\n

Ordeal was not over<\/p>\n

After the injection, he began to breathe again \u2014 but it wasn’t over yet.<\/p>\n

“About 20 minutes after, it seemed like a wave or another episode was coming along, and my throat started to tense up again,” Mr Rawle said.<\/p>\n

He said the cabin crew leapt into action, providing him with oxygen, and called for a doctor.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The incident occurred on a Virgin Australia flight from Perth to Newman. (ABC News: Cody Fenner)<\/p>\n

When none were available, they asked if anyone had an EpiPen.<\/p>\n

“Then a lovely young lady, a stranger to me, pressed the call button and delivered me an EpiPen, which I then jabbed into my other leg,” Mr Rawle said.<\/p>\n

But still the drama wasn’t over, and he knew another wave was likely.<\/p>\n

So, in Mr Rawle’s words, the pilots “absolutely punched it” to Newman.<\/p>\n

“I think one of the other passengers said that her children were screaming with delight because it felt like a roller coaster ride.”<\/p>\n

He was met by a waiting ambulance and received adrenaline before he was rushed to Newman Hospital.<\/p>\n

Mr Rawle said it was the most extreme reaction he had ever had.<\/p>\n

Virgin Australia chose not to comment on the incident.<\/p>\n

It is understood that cabin crew are taught to manage anaphylaxis as part of their aviation medicine training.<\/p>\n

EpiPens are not included in first aid kits onboard, with passengers encouraged to carry appropriate medication and declare severe allergies prior to flying.<\/p>\n

\"Newman<\/p>\n

An ambulance was waiting for Mr Rawle at Newman Airport. (Supplied: East Pilbara Shire)<\/p>\n

Thanks given, but not necessary<\/p>\n

Mr Rawle said without the quick actions of the flight crew and the woman who gave him the EpiPen, he could have died.<\/p>\n

“I don’t think we’d have made it anywhere, either to Newman or an alternate airport, had that passenger not put their hand up,” he said.<\/p>\n

Upon his recovery, he emailed Virgin Australia to compliment the staff.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

Without a second EpiPen, the flight may have had to deviate for an emergency landing. (ABC News: Emily Anderson)<\/p>\n

“I’m very happy with the service that they provided outside of the normal scope of their jobs,” he said.<\/p>\n

He also contacted his saviour on social media \u2014 when he found her, he offered to thank her in multiple ways, ranging from a carton of beer to a donation in her name.<\/p>\n

“She declined \u2014 she’s just a wonderful, wonderful person.”Theories abound<\/p>\n

Having only had food that contained no allergens, Mr Rawle was perplexed as to what caused the extreme reaction.<\/p>\n

But he had a theory.<\/p>\n

It being a new Embraer E190-E2 plane, Mr Rawle picked up the provided safety card for the first time.<\/p>\n

“The only theory that I can come up with is that on a previous flight, perhaps a passenger had been served some fruit and nuts, or something in their food that has found its way onto that safety information card,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Or perhaps some cheeky passengers stuffed a little bit of rubbish into the seat pocket, and I’ve touched it.”<\/p>\n

From there, it would have been a simple transfer from his fingers to his mouth to set off the reaction.<\/p>\n

Mr Rawle said he would definitely be taking some lessons away and would “relive the COVID days”.<\/p>\n

“Gloves, masks, seven EpiPens in the bag,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I think it could be a fairly hefty hand luggage on the next trip,” he laughed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A routine flight to a mining hub in Western Australia has narrowly avoided an emergency landing amid a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":400782,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[213133,213131,19481,213129,64,63,99,36506,178742,22928,137,213130,213132,21879,12807],"class_list":["post-400781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-air-incidents","tag-allergic-shock","tag-allergies","tag-anaphylactic-shock","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-emergency","tag-epipen","tag-flight","tag-health","tag-newman","tag-nut-allergy","tag-pilbara","tag-virgin-australia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=400781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/400782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=400781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=400781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=400781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}