British Airways passengers on 12-hour flight given KFC from buckets after 'fridge issue' with in-flight meals
26 July 2023, 17:05 | Updated: 26 July 2023, 17:50
British Airways passengers on a 12-hour flight from Turks and Caicos to London have branded the service a ‘disgrace’ after they were served chicken portions from buckets of Kentucky Fried Chicken.
Footage posted on social media shows cabin crew giving out fried chicken to passengers on flight BA252 from Turks and Caicos on Sunday.
Customers said a decision was made to order the take out for passengers from a branch of KFC in Nassau in the Bahamas and give portions to all the passengers on board - with eight hours of the trip left.
In-flight meals that were due to be given out became unsafe because they had not been properly chilled, according to reports.
One passenger posted on Instagram: “A 12-hour flight from Turks and Caicos and British Airways had forgotten food for all their passengers so on the scheduled stop at Bahamas they got KFC buckets and handed out one chicken leg per passenger.”
Another passenger named Andrew Bailey wrote on Twitter: “Just landed @HeathrowAirport after a 12.5 hour flight BA252 from Turks and Caicos with no catering! BA had to serve @kfc at Nassau giving some lucky passengers 1 piece of chicken. The container with the plane catering wasn’t chilled so all thrown away!”
Another passenger described the situation as “laughable”, adding on Twitter: “People with medical conditions [were] left without any food or proper refreshments.”
It is not clear what was served to vegetarian passengers or those with other dietary needs.
He said the incident was an “absolute disgrace” and said customers were also given food vouchers to redeem after getting off the plane.
Another customer said: “I think BA did the best they could given the circumstances.”
@British_Airways just landed @HeathrowAirport after a 12.5 hour flight BA252 from Turks and Caicos with no catering! BA had to serve @kfc at Nassau giving some lucky passengers 1 piece of chicken. The container with the plane catering wasn’t chilled so all thrown away!! pic.twitter.com/U5IcBD2hRy
— Andrew Bailey (@aktivandrew) July 24, 2023
Another defended the airline, saying: “It seems like they did the best they could with what they had available. Stuff happens, one needs to be able to roll with the punches sometimes!”
BA said: “Our teams sprung into action and made sure our customers had something to eat.
“We apologise to customers that their full meal service was not available and we had to wing it on this occasion. We're sorry if we ruffled any feathers.”
