Flying with a Medtronic pump: the air-pressure safety notice
Medtronic issued a field safety notice warning that cabin-pressure changes during flights can cause MiniMed pumps to deliver a small unintended amount.
If you fly with a Medtronic MiniMed pump, there is a safety notice worth knowing about. Medtronic has warned that the change in cabin air pressure when a plane takes off or lands can make the pump deliver a small unintended amount of insulin. It is guidance about handling your pump around flights, not a recall, and it does not mean your pump is faulty.
- The notice is FA1446, a field safety notice (an official heads-up from a device maker), and it was sent to UK NHS diabetes services.
- It covers MiniMed 600 and 700 series pumps (such as the 640G and 780G) that people use in the UK.
- A little extra insulin can nudge glucose down, so the thing to watch is a hypo (a low, glucose under 4 mmol/L) around take-off and landing.
- The exact steps come from Medtronic’s notice and your diabetes team, because guidance like this can change over time.
What the notice actually says
Medtronic issued the notice, reference FA1446, in early 2025. In plain terms, it says that atmospheric pressure changes during air travel can cause unintended insulin delivery. As a plane climbs and the cabin pressure drops, then again as it comes down to land, that pressure swing can push a tiny bit of insulin through the pump that you did not ask for.
This is about the physics of flying, not a fault in your device, and it is not a product recall. The notice was shared with NHS diabetes services in the UK, so your clinic will already be aware of it.
What this means for your next flight
You do not need to stop using your pump or stop flying. What the notice changes is that there are sensible steps for handling the pump around take-off and landing, and Medtronic sets those out in the notice itself. Your diabetes team can walk you through them for your specific pump, and it is worth asking before you travel rather than working it out at the gate. It is a good thing to raise at a routine appointment or before you book a trip, so you are not reading a technical notice for the first time in the departure lounge.
Because the effect is a small amount of extra insulin, the practical thing on the day is to keep an eye on your glucose and to have your usual fast-acting sugar within reach while you fly. Checking in on something like this after years of flying without a second thought is not a step backwards, it is just new guidance catching up with the tech.