Galley ice
 

The FA's always offer ice with drinks. Is that ice catered, or produced by an on-board ice machine?

If the later, does the machine have its own sterile water supply, or does it use the notorious water tanks?

(for that matter, where does the water for coffee and tea come from, and is it heated enough to sterilize it?)

They get it in a bag and are often banging on it to break it up. The banging is what makes me notice.

Ice is catered as ice. Have not seen any manufacturer offer an onboard icemaker yet, but thats not to say they don't exist (if you ever visit the Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg you'll realise that everything has already probably been invented for inflight use, no matter how obscure or useless we might think it is).

Tea/coffee makers run off the potable water supply run through a standard electric heating filament. The potable water supply in turn runs either off a pump system or off a pressure compressor system, depending on the aircraft type. It is sometimes questionable which one of the potable tanks or the blue juice tanks is nastier.

i wonder if the banging is airline dependent. there was a thread not too long ago in the united forum about fa's banging on ice to break it up, and someone stated that some airlines actually do that before customers board!

They should all do that! Its a source of amusement though to see the startled look on the faces of those who aren't accustomed to it. They think something on the plane is breaking.

By the way, if I notice it, then it means its happening on either Delta or American since those are the ones I fly. I think probably Delta.

From EPA:

http://www.epa.gov/safewater/airlinewater/index2.html