Vegetarian Air India passengers see red

Thirty vegetarian passengers on an Air India flight from Shanghai to Mumbai were left with a bad taste in their mouth after they were unwittingly served prawns early on Saturday morning. After the aircraft landed at the Mumbai airport at 4.40 am that day, the cabin crew registered a complaint with the airline management, which ordered an investigation into the incident, sources said.

Confirming the incident, Air India chairman and managing director Ashwani Lohani told the Asian Age that the caterer had erred while packing the meals.

“The caterer is Shanghai-based and we are looking into the incident,” he said.

According to Air India sources, flight AI-394 left Shanghai around 10.30 pm on Friday (local time). In the food section of the aircraft there was an oven cage with 32 packets that had a green dot, and these were distributed among the 30 economy class passengers who had opted for a ‘Hindu Vegetarian Meal’ while booking their tickets.

In the food packet, an item that was labelled ‘Shabnam Kofta Curry’ turned out to be prawns.

According to airline sources, two passengers, after discovering the actual contents of the packets, complained to the crew, which made an announcement, informing passengers who had booked vegetarian meals to stop eating. Following the announcement, the crew took the meals away.

The entire incident agitated the passengers and they started creating ruckus. “The crew had to apologise to the passengers. who were very upset,” said a source.

“The crew later checked all the vegetarian food and once it was certified, the crew brought dal, parathas and fruit from the club class and served this to the vegetarian passengers to calm them down,” commented a top airline official.

Air India sources said that airline is going to invoke the penalty clause in the agreement against the caterer.