Another Reason Not to Eat United’s In-Flight Meals: Passenger Swallowed Wire Hidden In His Food

by Anthony Losanno
United 787

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I have been extremely critical of United’s in-flight meals for years and have even compared what the carrier serves in its Polaris (Business Class) cabin on international flights to prison food (more here). But, one passenger found something even more unappealing in his food and claims that it caused him serious injury after he ingested the piece of metal.

Paddle Your Own Kanoo writes that Bastian Bromse filed a lawsuit against United Airlines in an Illinois district court in July. He is claiming damages for personal injury sustained under Article 17 of the Montreal Convention. The Montreal Convention was signed in May 1999 and holds airlines liable for passenger injuries that occur during international flights.

In May 2023, Bromse was flying from Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD) to Berlin Brandenburg Airport (BER) on United Airlines flight UA234. During the dinner service, Bromse “sustained serious injuries to the inside of his throat when he swallowed a piece of wire hidden inside his airline-provided meal. [The wire] became lodged in his throat, and he was required to undergo a medical procedure to have the metal removed, which caused severe discomfort and pain.” The lawsuit was filed last month and United Airlines has not commented on the pending litigation.

Maggot Pasta

This is not the only incident involving United’s catering. In May, I wrote about another passenger who found a maggot in their pasta meal. United offered 7,500 MileagePlus miles or a $150 electronic travel credit.

Anthony’s Take: United’s catering isn’t great on a good day, but this can’t be blamed on poor food quality. Hopefully, Mr. Bromse doesn’t suffer any permanent health issues.

(Image Credits: @rereadit via Reddit and United Airlines.)
(H/T: Paddle Your Own Kanoo.)

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Advertiser & Editorial Disclosure: The Bulkhead Seat earns an affiliate commission for anyone approved through the links above This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. We work to provide the best publicly available offers to our readers. We frequently update them, but this site does not include all available offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities.

2 comments

Kill Yourself August 5, 2024 - 8:06 pm

Gary Leff, is that you with the clickbait?

Reply
Christian August 6, 2024 - 2:11 am

In fairness, I don’t think the metal was hidden which shows intent. I suspect it was lost, which still sucks but at least isn’t intentional.

Reply

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