American Airlines flight 203 from Amsterdam to Philadelphia took off after loading up on catering for the flight – only the frozen pasta wasn’t going to stay frozen, because it was stored in a device marked as inoperative and that it should be removed from service. That’s where they stored the pasta, from Amsterdam of all places – the airport Delta was flying to last summer when they poisoned passengers with an inflight meal, forcing a diversion.
Hey @simple_flying I’m really concerned about food safety being ignored by the #FAA in light of passenger meals getting served in broken refrigeration devices by @AmericanAir. Look at this! @aviationbrk @AviationSafety maybe be interested too! pic.twitter.com/38d7D2sRp4
— RidiculouslyOutspoken (@ARidiculous1) January 7, 2025
The Delta maggot flight was also an Amsterdam flight, by the way. I reached out to American Airlines for comment, and will update if they respond.
Food poisoning is no joke. If they didn’t fix this, the result is likely personal ‘explosive decompression’ (from both ends, if you know what I mean). With 200 passengers experiencing that all around the same time, trapped in a metal (sorry, Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastic) tube, rocketing along at 600mph, 36,000 feet above an ocean, there simply are not enough lavatories on any aircraft. It’d be that scene from Family Guy where they all drink the ipecac (‘Who wants chowdah?’). We seriously do not pay the cleaning crews enough.
@1990 stop posting here, moron.
You’re not funny nor interesting.
@AndyS
You made my day. Thank you.
This is one instance that I think that not much thought was given to the circumstance.
Respectfully, that is not a refrigerator. It is an oven. Though there are some units that are refrigerators that do look like that, but this is clearly an oven.
It may not work, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be used to store things temporarily until another oven is available.
My guess is that the plan was to heat all the others up, and once the first oven is done, they’ll unload it immediately and put all the Frozen entrees from that broken oven into one of the working ones to be heated. I don’t really see a problem with that.
Although this has bad optics, this may not be a concern for food safety. If the meals will be served during the first service, they will be heated and served within about three hours. They will likely not be fully defrosted before heating even if they are not refrigerated. Here the holding container for the meals looks to have some insulation value, too. Without being fully defrosted, the cold inhibits bacteria and mold growth. Depending on the cooking equipment and the controls set, partially defrosted food could end up being overcooked. I commonly freeze and defrost milk to extend the self life of it. Sometimes I heat it to the food safety guidelines to do the same thing.
I’m more concerned with a passenger opening up an oven in a galley and handling food as this video seems to show.
Even minor food residues can cause unpleasant odors and hygiene issues, making it essential to thoroughly clean food storage equipment. Inoperative food service storage equipment should never be used for food storage, as there is no reason to clean and sanitize equipment that is not in working order. Using such equipment can result in violations of sanitation preventive controls. When flying on American Airlines, protect yourself from foodborne illnesses caused by improper sanitization procedures by not consuming improperly stored meals. To help travelers understand the importance of proper food sanitation practices, here is a link to an FDA report provided to CBS News in response to a Freedom of Information Act request. This report details dozens of violations at Taylor Farms, a supplier for McDonald’s linked to a deadly E. coli outbreak that affected over 100 people.
https://www.scribd.com/document/814225129/FDA-inspection-report-for-Taylor-Farms-Colorado-Inc#from_embed
I believe Liam is correct: this is an in-op in-flight oven, not a refrigerator unit. Storing frozen food in essentially a dry goods storage unit (which is what an in-op oven becomes…) isn’t he *best* plan, but if the food was intended to be “cooked” within a couple of hours (in a working oven) then this is probably a non-issue, food-safety-wise.
I’m much more aligned with NedsKid: why was a random passenger allowed to rifle through the galley equipment??
That is an oven, not a chiller. The chiller units on the 787 are the carts below in the ovens. The meals are preloaded into oven racks directly from the caterer. If the oven was marked as inoperative the meals would simply be transferred to a working oven with space. On the 787-8 there are 2 extra ovens that rarely get used.