Singapore Airlines apologises after passenger finds 'human tooth' in his meal

SINGAPORE — National carrier Singapore Airlines (SIA) has apologised to a customer who found a "human tooth" in his meal on a flight from New Zealand to Australia.

The airline is investigating the incident.

In response to queries, an SIA spokesperson said on Wednesday (Feb 27) that the incident took place on Tuesday on flight SQ248 from Wellington to Melbourne.

A customer found “what appeared to be a foreign object in (his) meal”, the spokesperson said.

TODAY understands that the meal was not prepared by Sats, which is the in-flight caterer for various airlines at Changi Airport.

“We are currently investigating this incident and have sent the object for analysis. Once the results of the analysis are known, we will determine what the most appropriate course of action to take is,” said the spokesperson.

“We expect all of our meals to meet a consistently high standard and we are disappointed by this discovery.”

News agency Australian Associated Press (AAP) first reported that the passenger, Mr Bradley Button, found a tooth that did not belong to him when eating his rice.

He felt unwell after discovering the tooth, and told AAP that a flight attendant was “adamant that she needed to take it away for testing and was trying to tell (him) that it was a small rock when it was, without a shadow of a doubt, a tooth”.

Mr Button, who was travelling home to Melbourne, said that he was later given a S$75 voucher, which he could use to buy duty-free products on board SIA’s flights.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article stated that Sats is Changi Airport’s in-flight catering service provider. This is incorrect. Sats caters meals for various airlines, but not the airport. We are sorry for the error.