American Airlines flight attendants were placed in an absurd situation earlier this week when they had to prepare meals and beverages in “near-total darkness” on a longhaul transatlantic flight because the airline dispatched a Boeing 777 aircraft with broken galley lights.
American Airlines Flight Attendants Forced To Prepare Meals In The Dark On London-Los Angeles Flight
On Saturday, February 14, 2026, American Airlines Flight 137 from London Heathrow (LHR) to Los Angeles (LAX) was dispatched with non-functioning galley lights, leaving cabin crew to improvise with emergency flashlights while preparing and serving meals and drinks. According to a video shared on View From The Wing, flight attendants were juggling trays and utensils in near darkness as passengers waited for service across the Atlantic.
The problem is not that AA broke any safety regulations or put passengers in danger (beyond potentially mis-plating meals). Indeed, AA may have made the right call in deciding that it was more costly to take a delay at Heathrow than to defer this annoying but ultimately minuscule maintenance issue.
Minimum Equipment List (MEL) procedures allow for the safe, legal operation of aircraft with specific inoperative components for a limited time. When equipment fails, it must be logged, checked against the operator’s FAA-approved MEL, and if authorized, deactivated/placarded by maintenance. For example, that’s why we often see these stickers on seats or in lavatories:
And I certainly understand that logic. Fixing the galley may have taken 10 minutes…or it may have taken 10 hours. Better to get the flight into LAX, a hub for AA, on-time and figure it out there rather than at an outstation in London where UK261 (big compensation for these type of delays) would apply.
There has been no official response from American Airlines yet on why the flight was sent in this condition, but again…it makes sense. And if it was AA137, that flight leaves at 11:50 am and arrives at 3:20 pm (in other words, the entire flight is during daylight). Based on the video, though, it would not surprise me if this was AA135 instead, which leaves at 4:55 pm and arrives at 8:25 pm (in this time of year, that means the flight would operate almost totally in darkness).
But it is also sad these type of stories typically, or least anecdotally, are about American Airlines. It’s not that Delta Air Lines or United Airlines do not have broken equipment (in fact, the picture above is from United), but it just seems, at least these days, a lot more likely to be on AA. That’s something the carrier is working to address…but it must do more and it must do it faster.
CONCLUSION
Any flight, but especially a longhaul international flight should theoretically never leave the ground without basic cabin systems like galley lighting in working order. That American Airlines did so and expected the crew to soldier on with flashlights may have been the pragmatic solution, but was still not ideal.
The crew deserves credit for handling an awkward circumstance professionally, but AA must ensure any avoidable service failures do not occur by engaging in more preemptive maintenance. I’ve been on so many AA flights the last year with broken seats or screens that I find it hard to believe that this was a foreseen accident versus a maintenance issue that may have been overlooked.
Complete and total darkness? What is this, the cabin on a 2h domestic flight in the USA departing at noon?
lol.
Truly a thought-provoking event! To the attention of Robert Isom!
Unfortunately, AA (the largest airline in the world in terms of passengers carried and daily flights) currently appears to be in a strange situation that neither its employees nor its guests deserve…
Not cool. Crews deserve better. Inevitably some will punch-down, hate on the people that literally serve them (these crews working in the dark), instead of recognizing what this really is: failure by management to ensure planes are properly maintained.
I feel like the Delta secret sauce is maintenance and making old planes feel new again (throw in sufficient extra legroom economy for good measure). This should be the new North Star for AA.
Still waiting on a 4 pack of Main Cabin Extra gum from Extra Gum as an MCE amenity by the way.
This is exactly correct.
l have to think there is more to this story. l can’t believe the Flight dispatcher or the Capt. took the airplane with the galley lights placarded per the MEL on such a long haul. Sometimes even though it can go per an MEL, dispatcher or Capt discretion should say ” no l am not releasing the flight” but again there must be more to this story.
As a former UAL F/A, I find this story to be worrisome.
No Captain would ok the departure of a flight without these lights in working condition…unless he was bribed by management (LOL)
No galley lighting is definitely a workplace hazard, and potentially dangerous.
The ovens are very hot and it would be easy to get burned, or drop something, endangering all F/As
These emergency flashlights… were they part of the emergency equipment required to be on board for an emergency? If so, and there was an emergency… ??
Why didn’t the cabin crew assigned to the galley refuse to fly in unsafe conditions?
Likely because it appears only writers looking for some clicks considered a fully daytime (look at the video — it’s full daylight in the passenger cabin) flight to be unsafe.
I don’t believe we have any indication the crew found working a flight in daytime to be unsafe.
I enjoy reading these stories as much as the next guy whether it’s AA doing this or another carrier but let’s not confuse faux outrage with an actual safety issue.
If you read what I wrote, I noted that possibility, but you also have the flashlight video which seems odd if the cabin was filled with natural light.
I saw what you wrote, noting that it was more likely the late LHR-LAX flight without sunlight at this time of year
— “Based on the video, though, it would not surprise me if this was AA135 instead, which leaves at 4:55 pm and arrives at 8:25 pm (in this time of year, that means the flight would operate almost totally in darkness).”, —
I then watched the video and the sunlight from the passenger cabin seemed pretty obvious unless Jesus had shown up with a heavenly glow for the appetizers? It shouldn’t surprise anyone that the galley doesn’t have windows of any significant size, right? Leaving the AA 77W alone, I can’t think of the last galley I was in with significant windows. If anything, they all have those 6″ ones on the doors that are often shuttered anyway
I’m not suggesting I’m 100% right (I’m often very wrong), I just think the sunlight in the passenger cabin was pretty apparent at the end of the video and the AA 77W galleys don’t have any significant windows for sunlight while the passenger cabin does. So it shouldn’t surprise anyone to see flashlights in the galley with streaming sunshine from the passenger cabin
All that to say, neither the crew, the FAA, or American Airlines viewed this as a safety issue as best we can all tell. Much less even a disruption to passengers or crew aside from less light than usual.
As a former TWA flight attendant, we were hired with the confidence that we could make decisions on unexpected challenges. Given the probable undesirable time delay to the passengers, resulting in a negative memory of their AA flight, these flight attendants accepted the challenge of delivering the service on time, accepting the burden on them of the less than desirable galley lighting. Kudos to them for avoiding a delay.
AA has become the Aeroflot of USSR days…