According to Republic, A Mumbai-based lawyer Yusuf Iqbal was flying first class from Casablanca in Morocco to Mumbai on February 27 on the International airline Emirates when he discovered a cockroach in his in-flight meal.
Disgusted at the sight of it, he threw up a few times in the bathroom. Iqbal, who has been practising law for 17 years and is a senior member of the London-based International Council of Jurists, reportedly demanded for Rs 87 lakh from the international airlines.
Iqbal was reported as saying that the incident disturbed him so much that he had to skip a work-related engagement later, thereby missing out on an anticipated professional fees of Rs 30 lakh. Furthermore, he has demanded Rs 50 lakh for mental trauma and Rs 7 lakh for his and wife’s first-class return tickets (Mumbai – Casablanca – Mumbai) in the compensation demand.
Iqbal sent the legal notice a week later “without prejudice or admission of liability. In response, the airline admitted that it was a beetle and offered him 25,00 air miles “as a token of regret.”
“The inspection of the beetle allegedly found in your salad shows it was a common seasonal beetle found in Morocco. But, finding out how it came aboard was difficult to pinpoint. The only explanation that is plausible, is that despite fumigation of the aircraft at Casablanca, the beetle somehow got in the aircraft whilst in Casablanca airport waiting for boarding, and was possible lurking somewhere in the galley area.”