Oli Beale included pictures of his mixed-up in-flight meal, which he recounted with passages such as:
"I know it looks like a baaji but it's in custard Richard, custard. It must be the pudding. Well you'll be fascinated to hear that it wasn't custard. It was a sour gel with a clear oil on top. It's only redeeming feature was that it managed to be so alien to my palette that it took away the taste of the curry emanating from our miscellaneous central cuboid of beige matter. Perhaps the meal on the left might be the dessert after all."
Dispelling suspicions of an adland stunt, Beale said the letter was a genuine complaint. However, he did not shed light on how it ended up on the internet and was picked up by several newspapers and blogs.
Virgin's PR department have been involved in the story, confirming that Branson responded personally by phone to the letter.