Air India confirms sharp object's presence in passenger's food after a week-long ordeal

New Delhi, June 17: 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 to the US from Bengaluru and had posted his plight on X social media platform, 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 fig chaat, served by Air India's in-flight food service. 

On June 10, he posted the picture of the fig chaat, with the blade-like metal seen in the plate. 

"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 had posted. 

"Thankfully, no harm was done. Of course, the blame squarely lies with Air India’s," he added. 

Speaking to IANS on Monday, Paul held that this could have turned into a disaster had he taken the metal object inside. 

"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 "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 company spokesperson said the airline is working with its catering partners to “strengthen measures to prevent any recurrence, including more frequent checking of the processor, especially after chopping of any hard vegetable". 

According to Paul, the Air India stewardess "apologised 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 to 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 apologises for this experience". 

On Saturday, a passenger of the airline's New Delhi-Newark flight alleged that he was served "uncooked" food by the airline and the seats were dirty, describing the journey as "no less than a nightmare". 

In January this year, a passenger on an Air India flight from Calicut to Mumbai, took to social media to express her dissatisfaction with the airline's in-flight catering, after she was served non-vegetarian food, instead of the vegetarian meal she had ordered.