A passenger in El Al's business class experienced unexpected danger at breakfast during his flight.
N., an oncology patient from the Sharon area who was on his way to life-saving medical treatment in California, found a fragment of a utility knife (known in Israel as a Japanese knife) inside the vegetable cutlet served to him on the plane. After he complained, the airline offered him a $1,000 voucher in compensation, but he refused. "This is a ridiculous compensation for a case that could have ended in disaster," he told Ynet.
The incident happened on August 19 during a flight to Los Angeles. N's insurance company flew him to a series of treatments in the United States. N., who recovered in those days from a complex operation, flew in business class due to his condition.
"Out of enthusiasm I photographed all the meals that were served to send to my soldier son who remained in Israel," said N. "At breakfast, which was served toward the end of the flight, I was asked to choose between a shake and a vegetable patty. To my astonishment, and to my great luck, just before I took a bite, while I was cutting the vegetable patty with my knife and fork, I noticed that there was a hard foreign body in the patty, I removed the foreign object and was shocked when I realized that it was part of a Japanese knife, I immediately called the flight attendant and asked her to call the purser as well and I drew their attention to what was happening on my plate."
N. added that "I asked them to document and report to the most senior official at El Al, and if it is necessary to also involve a security official. How does a Japanese knife penetrate a food dish that is served on a flight and more so in business class, how does such a dish come out of the catering department? in my view this may border on an act of sabotage, who knows these days? I was all upset and I also asked the flight attendant to stop serving breakfast for the entire flight as a precautionary measure in case there might be more knife particles in the food dishes ready to be served to the passengers, but unfortunately this did not happen, the staff chose to continue distributing breakfast to the passengers."
He considers himself luck that he did not accidentally swallow the knife fragment. "The great luck was that I was busy taking pictures and 'showing off' to my son what kind of breakfast is served in business class. What if I had taken a bite? It would have injured my entire throat. Thank God it didn't happen."
El Al offered N. compensation for the danger, in the form of a $1,000 voucher for a future flight.
"We would like to once again express our apologies for the unfortunate incident of finding a broken knife in the portion of the meal that was served on your flight with us to Los Angeles on August 19, 2024," El Al's customer relations department said in a statement. "We are very pleased that you were not harmed by the presence of the knife. As I mentioned to you, the matter is being treated with great seriousness in the face of all the relevant factors, including the safety of the flight. We are happy to offer you a voucher in the amount of $1,000, which we hope will help improve your experience. The voucher will be sent to you in a separate email.
"I was very upset by this letter," said N. "El Al should be ashamed that this is how it sees fit to compensate any passenger when it could have ended in disaster. I decided to contact the manager of the claims department at El Al and gave her more time to reconsider the company's conduct and reconsider the ridiculous compensation they chose to give me. Since I didn't hear from her anymore, I landed in Israel at the beginning of November, stronger in my health, and I decided to pick up the gauntlet and not keep quiet and tell the media."
Israeli passenger shows knife fragment found in his El Al breakfast
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"It is hard to believe that El Al dismissed my case with a wave of a hand and did not bother to get back to me after I emphasized that the compensation offered to me was unacceptable to me. I also want to understand what will be done regarding the investigation of the case that endangered my life," according to N.
The El Al Company responded: "Upon receipt of the details of the event, the matter will be thoroughly investigated by all relevant parties. This is an unusual event that does not reflect El Al's standard of service and catering, and the food kitchens we work with maintain strict quality controls. We apologize for the customer's experience , and work regularly to prevent the recurrence of similar cases."