A grandma was kicked off a Jet2 flight after refusing to pay £9 for a frozen tuna sandwich.
Lily Ifield, 79, was on a flight to Turkey for a birthday trip when she was served a “soggy” and “cold” sandwich by the flight attendant.
Lily, a retired secretary from Hertfordshire, told the Sun: “The sandwich had mildew all over it, like dew and I thought, ‘oo-err’ . It was frozen’. I said, ‘I can’t eat that, it’s freezing and it’s wet and soggy’.
“He said, ‘well you’ve opened it, you’ve got to pay for it’. And I said, ‘I’m not going to pay for it, I don’t want it – I won’t eat that. It’s awful’.
“He came back twice after that trying to push us around but we still refused to pay – that sandwich could have made me unwell – it had salmonella written all over it.”
When she refused to pay the £9, the cabin crew reportedly said: “This isn’t a restaurant – it’s a plane.” They then called armed police to pick her up when they landed in Bodrum.
Lily said: “The police were standing at the entrance to the plane, waiting with guns like we were master criminals. We had no idea what we had done. I was turning round to people, saying ‘I think I’ve been arrested over a sandwich’.
“The steward said, ‘will you shut up’ he said, ‘I don’t want you talking’. I said ‘excuse me, I can talk as much as I like’. We were being treated like convicts over a bap. We got to the entrance and the police were there with all their guns. My daughter was saying, ‘perhaps someone has put drugs in our luggage mum’. We were shaking.”
Lily claims her and her daughter were then “frog-marched” for “miles” through the airport, even though she “needs a new knee and uses a walking stick”.
“I kept asking, ‘excuse me, what have we done?’ And they kept saying, ‘no speak English, no speak English’. My daughter said, ‘look, my mum just sent a sandwich back – what’s this all about?’
“It only ended when they suddenly realised how stupid the argument was they had been called for and told us “just go”. They were clearly so embarrassed. We were so upset we just stayed in our room for four days. We felt sick with worry. It ruined our holiday. All over a flipping tuna sandwich. No-one would have eaten that.”
When they arrived at the hotel, the pair complained to Jet2, who accused them of smuggling alcohol onto the plane. Lily called it a “terrible, disgusting lie” that Jet2 are telling because they are “embarrassed” by the whole incident.
A spokeswoman for Jet2 said: “We can confirm that these customers displayed continued disruptive and unpleasant behaviour on board flight LS1609 from London Stansted to Bodrum, including the illicit consumption of alcohol that had been purchased in duty free and brought on board.
“As a result, police met the aircraft on arrival at Bodrum to escort Mrs Ifield and her daughter off the aircraft. As a family-friendly airline, we take a zero-tolerance approach to such behaviour, and we make it very clear that customers cannot consume their own alcohol on flights.
“We will always support our crew in instances when they are subjected to disruptive, rude or unpleasant behaviour while prioritising the comfort of all customers and crew so that they can enjoy their flight.”
