The family of 16-year-old Jason Hu alleges Qatar Airways staff assured him an in-flight sandwich was safe despite his severe allergies, before emergency equipment including an oxygen tank and epinephrine injector failed during his fatal reactionAssaf Rosen|The family of a 16-year-old boy who died after suffering a severe allergic reaction aboard a Qatar Airways flight has filed a negligence lawsuit against the airline and its medical advisory provider. According to the complaint, Jason Hu was flying from Doha to New York in August 2024 when airline staff assured him that a sandwich served aboard the aircraft was safe for him to eat despite his severe allergies to peanuts, dairy products and fish.Shortly after taking a bite, Jason began struggling to breathe and collapsed, the lawsuit alleges. His family claims that critical emergency equipment aboard the aircraft, including a portable oxygen tank and an epinephrine injector, did not function properly as crew members attempted to save him.Qatar Airways (Photo: shutterstock)The complaint was filed on July 14 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania against Qatar Airways and MedAire, a company that provides remote medical guidance to airlines.Jason had been returning to the United States with his father, Eric Hu, and his sister, Erica Hu, following a family trip to China. Their journey included a connecting Qatar Airways flight from Doha to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.According to the lawsuit, Jason and his father informed members of the flight crew of his life-threatening food allergies. Despite those warnings, the family claims, an airline employee specifically assured them that the sandwich offered to Jason was safe for him to consume.Immediately after eating some of it, Jason began experiencing severe breathing difficulties and collapsed because he could no longer breathe, the complaint states.Jason attempted to use his personal nebulizer, but it did not relieve his symptoms, according to the filing. A crew member then administered an unidentified injection, but Jason’s condition did not improve. The flight crew brought a portable oxygen cylinder and placed a mask over his face, but the family alleges that the tank was not operational or failed to work properly.The lawsuit further claims that the epinephrine auto-injector used during the emergency was also defective or ineffective.Jason was believed to have died during the flight, but was officially pronounced dead only after the aircraft landed at JFK Airport. According to the complaint, his body remained behind the seats occupied by his father and sister for the rest of the flight, with the nonfunctioning oxygen mask still over his face.Jason’s father and Jenny Nguyen, the co-administrators of his estate, are seeking compensatory damages and a jury trial. They accuse Qatar Airways of failing to provide safe food after being informed of Jason’s allergies and of failing to ensure that the aircraft’s emergency medical equipment was operational.The complaint also names MedAire, which provides airlines with medical and travel-safety assistance. The family alleges that MedAire failed to provide the flight crew with adequate medical advice or recommend that the aircraft divert for an emergency landing. Neither Qatar Airways nor MedAire had publicly responded to the allegations at the time of publication.The fatal incident follows a separate lawsuit filed against Qatar Airways in October 2025 over its alleged treatment of another passenger with severe food allergies. In that case, a mother is seeking $5 million after a flight attendant allegedly gave her 3-year-old daughter a KitKat chocolate bar despite repeated warnings that the child was severely allergic to dairy products and nuts.The incident allegedly occurred aboard a flight from Washington Dulles International Airport to Doha while the mother had briefly left her seat to use the bathroom. According to that complaint, the child suffered a severe anaphylactic reaction and her mother administered an epinephrine injection.The family alleges that the crew failed to properly manage the medical emergency, and that the girl later required two days of treatment in an intensive care unit. Qatar Airways had not publicly responded to those allegations when the case was reported.