Last month I wrote about Etihad Airways offering free travel insurance, another move by the airline and Abu Dhabi to make the United Arab Emirates an easier, more attractive place for tourists to visit. Then this came across my feed.
Dr. Gretchen Winter, a physician who describes herself as quadruple board certified, says she tried to help a passenger during a medical emergency aboard Etihad flight EY16 on August 27. She says the male cabin manager wouldn’t let her.
He sent her back to her seat. What caught my attention wasn’t only that a doctor says she was prevented from helping. Winter says there were two female physicians on the plane willing to step in. According to her account, both were turned away while the passenger remained on the floor of the aircraft.
“Your cabin manager on EY16 put a passenger’s life at risk today,” Winter wrote on X, in a thread that quickly attracted hundreds of thousands of views. Winter says the emergency happened close to where she was sitting. She saw the commotion and went over.
“I identified myself and asked for the medical bag,” she wrote.
According to Winter, the cabin manager “brusquely” told her to return to her seat because he was first-aid trained and didn’t need her. She says he instructed people to give the passenger oxygen, which she believed wasn’t what the patient needed.
Winter identified herself again and explained what she needed to do. Again, she says, she was told to sit down. Then comes a detail I find hard to shake. As Winter walked back to her seat, she says surrounding passengers grabbed her several times by the arm and asked her to stay and help. She couldn’t.
Two women doctors, one passenger on the floor
Ten or 15 minutes later, according to Winter, the passenger was still lying in another aisle.
“I was not allowed to do so and had to watch him mismanage the situation from my seat,” she wrote.
A flight attendant eventually apologized to her, Winter says, and explained that the cabin manager was simply “following protocol.” But what protocol?
“As I write this note they are still lying in the aisle and myself and another female physician have both been turned away,” Winter wrote while apparently still aboard EY16.
She couldn’t understand why the cabin manager couldn’t complete whatever documentation Etihad required while allowing a physician to assess the passenger. About an hour later, she says, the cabin manager came to speak with her. He explained that he had been following protocol and would have “called” her if she were needed.
Winter told him that, in her medical opinion, he had triaged the passenger incorrectly and had also been disrespectful toward her. She says he doubled down.
“I don’t know if this is just sexism or stupidity,” Winter wrote, “but your cabin manager is a liability.”
That is Winter’s question, not yet an established explanation for what happened. Nothing in the posts I’ve seen shows the cabin manager explicitly saying, “You cannot help because you are a woman.” But I think it’s a fair question to ask.
One female doctor being brushed aside could be an arrogant cabin manager, a misunderstanding or some obscure airline procedure. Two female physicians being turned away during the same emergency starts to look stranger. Especially on an airline based in the United Arab Emirates.
Is this Etihad protocol? The UAE wants the world to see something very different from the old stereotypes of the Gulf. Dubai and Abu Dhabi sell themselves as global cities. Women fly in for conferences, holidays, investment meetings and stopovers. They put women on stage, give them roles of “power” or is it all smoke and mirrors?
Etihad is one of the country’s most visible international faces. And Etihad itself employs women across aviation, medicine and management. Dr. Nadia Bastaki, its Chief People and Corporate Affairs Officer, is herself a physician and a prominent figure in aviation medicine.
So I don’t think it’s reasonable to take the actions of one cabin manager and declare that we’ve discovered what an entire country thinks about women. But I also don’t think Etihad gets to hide behind the word “protocol.” If this really was protocol, what was it?
Does Etihad instruct cabin managers to refuse help from doctors unless the crew decides it is required? Was Winter’s medical training verified or even considered? Why was a second physician reportedly turned away? And when a passenger has been lying on the floor for 10 or 15 minutes, at what point does a first-aid-trained cabin manager call upon the doctors sitting a few metres away?
Etihad Help did respond publicly to Winter after her posts began circulating. “Hey Gretchen, we’re concerned to see this,” the airline wrote, asking her to send more details by direct message. Companies in the Gulf region are often handled by British PR firms who understand sexism and its consequences.
There may be another side to this story. I would like to hear it. For now, what we have is the account of a doctor who says she watched a medical emergency unfold from her seat because the person running the cabin wouldn’t allow her to help.
Etihad has spent a great deal of money convincing travelers that Abu Dhabi and the UAE are open, modern and ready for the world. What happened aboard EY16 deserves an explanation, because if preventing two female doctors from helping really is Etihad “protocol,” travelers deserve to know that too.
Green Prophet has asked Etihad Airways for clarification about its medical emergency procedures and what happened aboard flight EY16. We will update this story if the airline responds.
