By Frank Parlato
Petra Smeltzer Starke had planned every detail of her journey from Mexico to New York. One misstep could mean disaster. Her sponsors had paid $1,600 for a first-class seat, 1B, next to the aisle, close to the restroom.
She was booked on flight 706, United Airlines, from Cabo to Newark. United, the largest airline in the world “based on revenue passenger miles.”
“Each year, we fly 140 million people to more than 300 destinations across six continents,” United says on its home page of its website.
And Petra Smeltzer Starke, an attorney and social media influencer, was one of the 140 million on Sunday, August 10, 2025.
Petra’s Public Role and Sponsors
She had sponsors who paid her as a brand ambassador to promote their products to her more than one million followers on Instagram and other platforms. Among her sponsors was Mainz Biomed, a German company specializing in early colorectal cancer screening.
This was especially appropriate, for Starke has cancer herself.
Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment Abroad
In October 2020, Petra was diagnosed with cancer. Her treatment at Johns Hopkins combined radiation, chemotherapy, and surgery. A year later, her doctors pronounced her “cancer-free.”
Then, after more than two years, the cancer reemerged. This time, Petra pursued treatment outside the United States. She traveled to Cabo, where the Williams Cancer Institute offered intratumoral immunotherapy—a direct injection of immune-stimulating drugs into tumors. The therapy is unavailable in the U.S. because the institute employs experimental treatments not yet approved by the FDA.
Routine Flights — Until Now
Since June 1, she had flown on United Airlines every other week from Los Angeles to Cabo and then returned to the USA. She never had a problem on any flight.
But not this time.
After a week of treatment in Mexico, she had planned to go to Memorial Sloan Kettering in New York as part of her treatment. At Los Cabos International Airport, she anticipated the usual routine. Show up early. Smile at the wheelchair attendant. Tip them 100 pesos. This is Mexico. She arrived in a wheelchair at gate 18.
Petra typically did not use a wheelchair between the check-in desk and the aircraft, as she was able to walk that distance on her own. For this reason, she was permitted to board first.
It should have been her sanctuary. Instead, it became her ordeal. Seated in it, charging his phone, was a male flight attendant in his 30s or 40s. She said excuse me this is my seat.
Denial of Assistance
She asked for his help. He got up reluctantly. She said she had a medical condition, a disability, and needed his assistance to put her bag overhead. He said “that’s not my job. We don’t do that anymore. I can check it for you.”
As she struggled to get it up there, he helped her.
She wanted to charge her phone since she would listen to music during the six-hour flight. The flight attendant, who had relinquished her seat to her, had left behind his cell phone and it was attached by a chord to the charging unit at her seat.
She said to the attendant “Excuse me; I need to charge my phone.”
The attendant did not remove his phone. Instead, he walked off in the direction of the cockpit.
Ejection for “Odor”
Up until this time, Petra was the only passenger on the plane. Those in wheelchairs were to board next. Within a minute, a ground staffer, Sondra Vazquez came on the plane and told Petra she had to deplane for “rebooking” because of an alleged odor.
Petra disclosed her disability: she was undergoing cancer treatment.
The odor was Oud, sometimes called ‘liquid gold’—a $1,200 fragrance prized in Paris and Dubai but sometimes misunderstood by Western noses as too strong. Vazquez asked if she had clean clothing and if she could change.
They went off the plane to the handicap bathroom.
Denied Again
Petra changed and when she came out Vazquez reboarded the aircraft while Petra waited at the United desk. Petra had explained that she had a doctor’s appointment at Sloan Kettering, where she was scheduled for testing to ensure that her treatments in Mexico were proceeding in the right direction. She asked that the message be relayed to the pilot.
When Sondra returned, she said to Petra “this was not right. But the captain said you can’t fly.”
Petra requested that the captain provide a written statement confirming his denial of her boarding. The request was refused. In denying her that, United denied her not just a flight but evidence — the kind of paper trail lawyers know matters most.
But Vazquez provided a handwritten statement naming Captain McGee as the person who denied boarding, citing “odor” as the reason. The aircraft then boarded the remaining passengers and departed without Petra. No wheelchair assistance was provided.
Stranded in Cabo
She was stranded. She collapsed onto the airport floor. She couldn’t stay. She had to get out. There was no immigration form—nothing that would permit her to exit through arrivals.
After a time, she got up off the floor and managed to walk to the Agencia Federal de Aviación Civil, the Mexican version of TSA. Because she was a familiar passenger, known for flying regularly on United, an agent called a supervisor, who in turn called another. The officials were cautious; their protocols required every traveler to be screened; strict searches were standard, driven by concerns about drugs and other contraband.
But she had flown that route every week. Some of the airport staff know her by name. They let her out through the employee entrance in the departures section.
A Dangerous Delay
Her Mexican doctor sent a driver, one of the few he relied on for safety. The driver, expected to meet her at the arrivals, did not realize she had left through departures. It was nearly three hours before she connected with the driver and was carried exhausted back to the hotel.
By Wednesday, her gluteal region was swollen and painful, making it difficult to walk. On examination, her doctor saw signs of severe infection. Her temperature was over 100°F, and she was diagnosed with sepsis. She was admitted to the hospital. By evening, her blood pressure crashed to 73/37, a life-threatening emergency. Her hemoglobin was critically low, a dangerous effect of sepsis. She needed irradiated blood — and none was available in Mexico. Her hospitalization and aftercare cost more than $50,000.
Had she reached New York, she might have avoided sepsis altogether.
United’s Defense
Now for United Airlines’ defense. United gives flight attendants vast discretion: if a crew member says a passenger might pose a problem — safety, health, or even perfume — the airline will remove them, even if no one else complains. For United, it’s cheaper to eject one passenger than risk an incident in the air. The calculation is simple: settling with a sick passenger, even for seven figures, costs less than setting a precedent that crews can be second-guessed.
Captain Andrew McGee made no effort to verify the alleged odor. For him, challenging his crew would risk internal complaints. Safer to eject Petra. The union divide makes this bias structural: flight attendants under the Association of Flight Attendants, pilots under the Air Line Pilots Association. Neither group wants its members second-guessed. In that equation, the passenger is always expendable.
Indifference in a Polyester Uniform
Let’s cut through the spin. No passengers complained. The decision rested entirely on crew discretion. A cancer patient? She’s just one seat, one ticket. The flight attendant’s judgment sealed her fate.
United says its purpose is “Connecting People. Uniting the World.” Yet in Petra’s case, connection meant being thrown out before boarding was completed. Their campaign? “Good Leads the Way®.” For Petra, what led the way was indifference in a polyester uniform. All the money, all the planes, all the slogans — and she was left sick, lying on the floor of a Mexican airport. They tossed her aside like she didn’t matter.
She’s the only one who looks human. Because truth, when told, is bigger than branding.
