British Airways came up with a pretty “Finger Lickin’ Good” solution on an international flight from Turks and Caicos when the plane’s catering system suffered a major mishap — stopping at a local KFC to feed the hungry patrons.
The airline was flying passengers on a roughly 12-and-a-half-hour journey from Providenciales in Turks and Caicos to London Heathrow Airport on Sunday with a layover in Nassau, Bahamas.
The plane’s catering carts reportedly malfunctioned, and all of the food for the trek had to be thrown out, leaving passengers starving and flight attendants scrambling for food for the second leg of the journey.
“Our teams sprung into action and made sure our customers had something to eat,” a spokesperson for British Airlines told Insider, noting that the food shortage was a result of “unforeseen circumstances.”
Staffers managed to source buckets of fried chicken from KFC and began handing out pieces to passengers. (Or “a” piece, according to some passengers.)
“ONE chicken leg per passenger, absolute disgrace, they then said they would be handing out vouchers as we left the plane which myself and travel partner never received,” one angry passenger wrote on Instagram.
“I checked this out with a BA friend. It seems Turks can’t do their catering so they take it with them on the outward flight,” someone offered in the comments. “The intense heat out there made the food unsafe and BA didn’t want to chance the whole flight getting sick. This was their only option to ensure everyone stayed safe but didn’t starve.”
@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
One passenger claimed that the food was supposed to be loaded onto the plane once it arrived in the Bahamas and that the issue with refreshments happened there, not at the flight’s original point of origin in Turks and Caicos.
I was on that flight and it originated in Providenciales (PLS). My seat number was 10B and my wife was 10A.
The catering from
NAS to LHR was always to be loaded in NAS and not Providenciales. The screw up happened in NAS with the catering
Service.— Piper Hanchell (@Hanchell) July 26, 2023
The airline did, however, get cheeky on social media in response to KFC’s UK account Tweeting about the mishap, calling it a “chicky situation.”
Thanks for getting us out of a chicky situation ? ✈️ #NormalServiceResumed
— British Airways (@British_Airways) July 26, 2023
“We apologize to customers that their full meal service was not available and we had to wing it on this occasion,” the airline told Insider. “We’re sorry if we ruffled any feathers.”
The airline said that all customers received refreshment vouchers after the flight ended.
British Airways did not immediately respond to Entrepreneur’s request for comment.
