While it has certainly improved through the years, many still consider airplane food subpar, to say the least. Now, imagine the police arresting you over it. That was almost the case for Lily Ifield, a 79-year-old grandma, after she returned a "soggy and cold" tuna sandwich she deemed inedible. After her flight landed in Bodrum, Turkey, armed officers were ready to put her in jail.
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After returning the tuna sandwich, Ifield refused to pay for it, engaging in an everlasting argument with the crew. According to her, who talked with The Sun, the crew grew angrier by the minute, telling her that "this isn't a restaurant, it's a plane." Unbeknownst to Ifield and her daughter, the crew called the police, who were waiting for the two of them, armed to the teeth.
"We had no idea what we had done. I was turning round to people, saying 'I think I've been arrested over a sandwich'," Ifield told the outlet. "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."
Stunned, Ifield and her daughter saw police officers were ready to escort them. All for the terrible crime of returning a tuna sandwich. Ifield's daughter even theorized that someone had put drugs in her mother's luggage. Either way, the whole situation was ridiculous for the 79-year-old.
Police ended up marching alongside Ifield and her daughter through the airport in what Ifield calculated to be miles. When they asked the officers for the reason behind their "arrest," they refused to answer, claiming to not speak English. Eventually, however, the whole thing came to an end.
"It only ended when they suddenly realized how stupid the argument was they had been called for and told us 'just go'," said Ifield. Embarrassed by the whole situation, officers just decided to forget about the entire thing. Ifield and her daughter ended up spending days inside their hotel room. "We felt sick with worry," they said. "It ruined our holiday. All over a flipping tuna sandwich. No-one would have eaten that."
That said, Jet2, the airline where the controversy took place, shared a statement with the New York Post. "Our cabin crew reported two customers displaying disruptive and unpleasant behavior throughout the flight, including the illicit consumption of alcohol that had been purchased in duty free and brought on board," the statement reads.
Reportedly, Ifield and her daughter call the statement a "disgusting lie." According to them, the airline invented the claim in an attempt to avoid sandwich-related embarrassment.
