Enroute To San Francisco, Passenger Finds Metal Blade In Air India Meal

SAN FRANCISCO, CA (IANS) – It took more than a week for Air India to respond publicly to the harrowing ordeal of journalist Mathures Paul, who found a deadly metal blade during a meal on his Air India flight from Bengaluru to San Francisco and had posted his plight on social media along with the images.

Paul took Air India Flight 175 from Bengaluru to San Francisco on June 9 and, to his horror, found a sharp object in the fig chaat, served by Air India’s in-flight food service.

“Air India food can cut like a knife. Hiding in its roasted sweet potato and fig chaat was a metal piece that looked like a blade. I got a feel of it only after chewing the grub for a few seconds,” Paul, a tech writer at The Telegraph in India, posted.

“This could have happened with any passenger on that plane. The sad part is that it took Air India a week to publicly respond to my ordeal and acknowledge what I have gone through in these days,” Paul lamented.

The airline confirmed in a statement that “a foreign object was found in the meal of a guest aboard one of our flights. After investigation, it has been identified as coming from the vegetable processing machine used at the facilities of our catering partner,” said an Air India spokesperson. The caterer TajSTATS too apologized on June 17.

According to Paul, the Air India stewardess “apologized for exactly three seconds and came back with a bowl of chickpeas.”

After a few days, the airline reached out to Paul, offering him a business class trip anywhere in the next year, to which Paul said, “This is a bribe being offered to me, and I will not accept this.”

Air India said it has “engaged with the affected customer and deeply apologizes for this experience”.