Sixteen-year-old Jason Hu should have made it home from his family's trip.

In a federal lawsuit filed on July 14, 2026, Jason's family alleges that he told a Qatar Airways crew member about his severe peanut, dairy, and fish allergies and was assured that an airline sandwich was safe. After eating it, Jason developed breathing distress and collapsed. The complaint alleges that an airline-supplied injection—believed by the family's attorney to have been epinephrine—failed to provide relief and that portable oxygen did not work. Jason did not survive. These allegations have not yet been tested in court.

His family's allegations expose a question every aviation regulator must answer: What good is emergency medicine if it is difficult to administer, does not work when needed, or is carried without a crew prepared to respond?

Current FAA rules require U.S. Part 121 passenger airlines to carry epinephrine in injectable ampules or an equivalent form, along with needles and syringes. They do not specifically require epinephrine auto-injectors. Crew training must cover the location, function, and contents of emergency medical kits, but hands-on performance drills are expressly required for defibrillators and CPR—not epinephrine administration.

Congress already ordered the FAA to propose updated equipment and training rules by May 16, 2026. The law specifically tells the agency to consider practical treatment for anaphylaxis and which supplies flight crews should be able to use without waiting for a medical professional's approval. The FAA's own regulatory agenda confirms that its coming rule is supposed to update both medical-kit requirements and crew training.

FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford must not let this overdue rule become another delay or a vague, performance-based standard that allows airlines to avoid carrying simple lifesaving devices.

We demand that Administrator Bedford publish the proposed rule by August 26, 2026, and require every U.S. Part 121 passenger aircraft to:

- Carry at least two adult-dose and two pediatric-dose epinephrine auto-injectors.
- Give flight attendants initial and recurrent, hands-on anaphylaxis-response training.
- Establish an FAA-approved protocol allowing trained crew members to administer or assist with epinephrine when delay would endanger a passenger.
- Check every device for expiration, storage conditions, recalls, damage, accessibility, and immediate readiness before departure.
- Replace every used, expired, recalled, or questionable device immediately.
- Prohibit an aircraft from departing when its required epinephrine devices are missing or not ready for emergency use.

The Youth Food Allergy Policy Coalition has already proposed four easy-to-use doses—two adult and two pediatric—as a practical minimum.

Sign and share this petition. No family should discover at 35,000 feet that lifesaving medicine is present but unusable—or that no one is prepared to use it.