Passengers on a 12-hour British Airways flight to London Heathrow were left dismayed when they were served KFC following a catering mishap.
The plane had been taking passengers from Turks and Caicos to Heathrow, via the Bahamas, when “unforeseen circumstances” meant the flight’s normal meal service was unavailable.
Passengers were reportedly told an issue with the plane’s refrigeration system meant the food overheated and was unsafe.
When the plane stopped at Bahamian capital Nassau, quick-thinking staff instead bought fried chicken from a KFC fast food restaurant at the airport.
Video footage shared on Instagram appears to show BA cabin crew serving pieces of fried chicken from KFC-branded cardboard buckets, using pairs of tongs.
One passenger slammed the incident on Instagram as an “absolute disgrace”, claiming staff gave out just “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.”
Other social media users have criticised the move as “unacceptable”, with one saying: “It should be better to delay the bloody flight and get a proper catering than this messy service with KFC.”
But others defended the airline, with one commenter writing: “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 added: “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 has since apologised, but defended its staff for thinking outside the box.
A spokesperson 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.”
It added that customers were given refreshment vouchers upon landing at Heathrow.
