Here\u2019s a key fact about aviation. Every commercial airplane worldwide is operated by two pilots in the cockpit. There\u2019s a solid rationale for this arrangement. Should one pilot encounter an issue, the other can take over and safely land the aircraft. That\u2019s the primary reason for having a duo of pilots.<\/p>\n
Therefore, when you contemplate it further, the aviation sector must be exceedingly vigilant regarding any situation that could incapacitate both pilots simultaneously. Not merely the aircraft, nor just one pilot. Both pilots, concurrently, in such a manner that leaves no one available to operate the plane.<\/p>\n
One potential risk that could lead to this situation, and precisely the reason this guideline was established, is the meal presented on the tray in front of them.<\/p>\n
What transpired on the flight from Anchorage<\/p>\n
On the morning of 3 February 1975, a Japan Air Lines Boeing 747 took off from Anchorage International Airport destined for Copenhagen. Initially departing from Tokyo, it was en route to Paris and transporting 344 passengers along with 20 crew members. Most of the passengers were Japanese sales representatives from Coca-Cola, participating in a company-sponsored trip to Europe. Anchorage marked the second layover on a long-haul itinerary. Breakfast was served to the passengers approximately an hour before the aircraft reached Copenhagen.<\/p>\n
The meal consisted of ham and omelette. These items had been prepared the day before at International Inflight Catering, a Japan Air Lines subsidiary located in Anchorage. The ham had been stored at room temperature for about fourteen hours in the kitchen, then at 10 degrees Celsius (or 50 degrees Fahrenheit) for an additional fourteen and a half hours, prior to being loaded onto the aircraft and heated for serving.<\/p>\n
According to the detailed account of the event recorded on Wikipedia, based on contemporary New York Times articles and a later investigation by The Lancet, one of the three chefs who prepared the omelettes at International Inflight Catering had infected wounds on the index and middle fingers of his right hand. He had covered them with bandages and reported to work without informing his supervisor. The lesions were harboring Staphylococcus aureus, and the ham he handled with those fingers was, while it sat at room temperature for an extended period, accumulating enough staphylococcal toxin to render several hundred individuals severely ill.<\/p>\n
Approximately an hour after breakfast, around 143 of the passengers started to vomit. One flight attendant collapsed as well. All were taken to hospitals in Copenhagen. Thirty passengers needed what was described as intensive care at the time. The plane landed without incident. Everyone survived.<\/p>\n
The specific explanation for the survival of all was, based on the investigation’s gathered evidence, an accidental stroke of timing.<\/p>\n
If you find this fascinating, you\u2019ll enjoy this video on the hidden impacts of long-haul flying.<\/p>\n
Click here to view it.<\/p>\n
The pilots chose steak<\/p>\n
The pilots had just completed an extended shift. Their internal clocks were still aligned with Alaska time, rather than European time. Consequently, when the breakfast trays were distributed, they did not crave typical breakfast fare. Per the Wikipedia account of the Copenhagen inquiry, they opted for steaks instead of the ham omelettes. This was the sole reason they remained capable when the illness surged through the cabin.<\/p>\n
The inquiry into the Anchorage catering facility was led by Dr. Mickey Eisenberg, a U.S. Public Health Service officer with the Alaska State Health Department. He and his team traced the outbreak back to the cook, documented the specific bacterial phage types and antibiotic resistances that linked the cook\u2019s finger injuries to the ham onboard, and published their complete findings in the medical journal The Lancet on 27 September 1975, in a paper titled \u201cStaphylococcal Food Poisoning Aboard a Commercial Aircraft.\u201d<\/p>\n
The abstract of this paper, now archived in the University of California\u2019s eScholarship system, includes a singular policy recommendation that few readers at the time anticipated would become a standard in the industry. It states: \u201cTo prevent a common foodborne illness from incapacitating the entire flight crew, cockpit crew members should consume different meals prepared by different cooks.\u201d<\/p>\n
That phrase, tucked away at the conclusion of an epidemiology paper concerning ham omelettes, is the origin of the contemporary rule.<\/p>\n
Seven years later, over the Atlantic<\/p>\n
In August 1982, approximately seven years following the JAL incident, an Overseas National Airways flight was in transit from Lisbon to Boston. About thirty minutes from Logan Airport, ten out of the twelve crew members onboard began to feel extremely unwell very rapidly. Included among them were the captain, the first officer, and the flight engineer.<\/p>\n
All had consumed the tapioca pudding.<\/p>\n
The pudding, later traced back to a catering source in Lisbon, caused illness in at least six passengers on a different Capitol Airlines flight from Lisbon three days later. This specific event was reported in the New York Times two years later when the newspaper published a piece discussing the state of food safety in commercial aviation. A representative from the Massachusetts Port Authority summarized<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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