![]() A Japan Air Lines Boeing 747-246B, similar to the one involved in the incident | |
Accident | |
---|---|
Date | 3 February 1975 |
Summary | Mass outbreak of food poisoning caused by Staphylococcus aureus |
Site | Copenhagen Airport, Denmark 55°37′5″N12°39′22″E / 55.61806°N 12.65611°E |
Aircraft | |
Aircraft type | Boeing 747-246B |
Operator | Japan Air Lines |
Registration | Unknown |
Flight origin | Tokyo International Airport (HND) |
1st stopover | Anchorage International Airport (ANC) |
2nd stopover | Copenhagen Airport (CPH) |
Destination | Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG) |
Occupants | 364 |
Passengers | 344 |
Crew | 20 |
Fatalities | 0 |
Injuries | 197 |
Survivors | 364 |
On 3 February 1975, 197 people fell ill aboard a Japan Air Lines Boeing 747 en route from Anchorage, Alaska, to Copenhagen, Denmark, after consuming an in-flight meal contaminated with Staphylococci . One hundred and forty-four people needed hospitalization, making it the largest food poisoning incident aboard a commercial airliner.
The incident occurred aboard a Boeing 747 operated by Japan Air Lines. The registration number of the aircraft is not known. At the time of the incident, Japan Air Lines had both the 747-100 and the 747-200B in their long-distance fleet. [1]
The aircraft was carrying 344 passengers. The exact number of crew members is not known, but the fact that 364 meals were taken on board indicates a crew of 20. Most of the passengers on the charter flight were Japanese salesmen of The Coca-Cola Company and their family members, who had won a trip to Paris. [2]
The flight originated from Tokyo Haneda Airport and made a fuel stop at Anchorage International Airport. After crossing the Arctic, another fuel stop at Copenhagen Airport was scheduled before the flight was to continue to its final destination at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport.[ citation needed ]
The aircraft reached European airspace after an uneventful flight. 90 minutes prior to the scheduled landing at Copenhagen, the flight attendants served ham omelettes for breakfast.[ citation needed ]
About one hour after breakfast, while approaching Copenhagen, 196 passengers and one flight attendant fell ill with nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and abdominal cramps. 144 of them were so severely ill that they required hospitalization; 30 were in critical condition. The other 53 were treated in makeshift emergency rooms.[ citation needed ]
As none of the doctors in Denmark spoke Japanese, and only few of the passengers were fluent in Danish or English, Japanese-speaking staff from Copenhagen restaurants were summoned to the hospital to act as translators. [2] [3]
The investigation team was led by United States Public Health Service officer Dr. Mickey S. Eisenberg of the Alaska State Health Department.[ citation needed ]
Laboratory tests of stool and vomit samples from passengers, as well as 33 samples of leftover ham omelettes, detected Staphylococcus aureus . [2] [4] Elevated concentrations of toxins produced by the staphylococci were also detected in the ham, explaining the extremely short incubation time. [3] [4]
The investigation began by tracing the pathogens back to its origin, and focused on the facilities of International Inflight Catering, an Anchorage-based subsidiary of Japan Airlines, where the meals had been prepared. It was found that three cooks had prepared the meals, one of whom had infected lesions on the index and middle finger of his right hand. [2] The lesions on the cook's fingers were found to be infected with staphylococci. Tests revealed identical phage types and antibiotic resistances for all samples, indicating that the cook was the source of the contamination. [2] [3] [4]
The aircraft had four galleys from which 354 meals were served, 40 in first class and 108 from each galley on the main deck. According to Eisenberg, the suspect cook had prepared meals for three of the four galleys. He had bandaged the lesions but not reported them to his superior, as he considered them trivial. Also, management had not verified that he was in good health, despite being required to do so, according to Eisenberg. [2]
The suspect cook had prepared all 40 omelettes served in first class, as well as 72 out of 108 for one of the main deck galleys. Furthermore, he handled all 108 omelettes for another galley (sources differ on whether he put the ham on these omelettes, or both cooks took the slices of ham for the omelettes they prepared from the same container). He had therefore handled a total of 220 meals. According to Eisenberg's hypothesis, 36 people who received a meal from one of the front galleys, as well as the 108 who were served their meal from the rear one, had eaten meals which were not contaminated. [2] [5]
According to microbiologists, it can take as few as 100 staphylococci to cause food poisoning. In-flight catering logistics provided ideal conditions for the bacteria to grow and release toxins, which induce severe nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and abdominal cramps. Being heat-resistant, the toxins were not destroyed when the omelettes were heated. [2]
Prior to being served, the meals had been stored at room temperature in the kitchen for 6 hours, then refrigerated (albeit at an insufficient 10 °C (50 °F)) for 14½ hours and then stored in the aircraft ovens, again without refrigeration, for another 8 hours. Had the food been kept properly refrigerated from the time it was prepared until it was ready to be served, the outbreak would not have occurred. [6]
Danish doctors stated that most of those who fell ill had occupied seats in the front section of the aircraft, consistent with Eisenberg's hypothesized distribution pattern of the contaminated omelettes. [2] 86% of those who ate omelettes handled by the suspect cook fell ill, whereas none of those who ate one of the other omelettes developed symptoms. [4]
Japan Air Lines' catering manager, 52-year-old Kenji Kuwabara, committed suicide upon learning that the incident had been caused by one of his cooks. [3] [7] He was the only fatality. [3]
Investigators emphasized that people with infected lesions should not handle food and that food should be stored at temperatures low enough to inhibit the growth of bacteria. [4]
It was just chance that the pilot and first officer had not eaten any of the contaminated omelettes, as the airline had no regulations regarding crew meals. [6] As the pilots' biological clocks were on Alaska time rather than European time, they had opted for a dinner of steaks instead of omelettes—had they not done so, they might not have been capable of landing the aircraft safely. [3] Eisenberg suggested that cockpit crew members eat different meals prepared by different cooks to prevent food poisoning outbreaks from incapacitating the entire crew, [4] a rule subsequently implemented by many airlines. [8]
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, legally Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij N.V., is the flag carrier of the Netherlands. KLM is headquartered in Amstelveen, with its hub at nearby Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. It is a subsidiary of the Air France–KLM group and a member of the SkyTeam airline alliance. Founded in 1919, KLM is the oldest operating airline in the world, and has 35,488 employees with a fleet of 110 as of 2021. KLM operates scheduled passenger and cargo services to 145 destinations.
China Airlines is the state-owned flag carrier of the Republic of China (Taiwan). It is one of Taiwan's two major airlines along with EVA Air. It is headquartered in Taoyuan International Airport and operates over 1,400 flights weekly – including 91 pure cargo flights – to 102 cities across Asia, Europe, North America, and Oceania. Carrying nearly 20 million passengers and 5700 tons of cargo in 2017, the carrier was the 33rd largest airline in the world in terms of revenue passenger kilometers (RPK) and 10th largest in terms of freight revenue ton kilometers (FRTK).
Northwest Airlines Corp. was a major airline in the United States from 1926 until it merged with Delta Air Lines in 2010. The merger made Delta the largest airline in the world until the American Airlines–US Airways merger in 2013.
Alaska Airlines is a major American airline headquartered in SeaTac, Washington, within the Seattle metropolitan area. It is the fifth-largest airline in North America when measured by scheduled passengers carried. Alaska, together with its regional partners Horizon Air and SkyWest Airlines operates a route network primarily focused on connecting cities along the West Coast of the United States to over 100 destinations in the contiguous United States, Bahamas, Belize, Canada, Costa Rica, Guatemala and Mexico.
Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport is a major airport in the U.S. state of Alaska, located 5 miles (8 km) southwest of downtown Anchorage. The airport is named for Ted Stevens, who served as a senator of Alaska from 1968 to 2009. It is included in the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2017–2021, in which it is categorized as a medium-hub primary commercial service facility.
Thomas Cook Airlines Limited was a British charter and scheduled airline headquartered in Manchester, England. It was founded in 2007 from the merger of Thomas Cook Group and MyTravel Group, and was part of the Thomas Cook Group Airlines. It served leisure destinations worldwide from its main bases at Manchester Airport and Gatwick Airport on a scheduled and charter basis. It also operated services from eight other bases around the United Kingdom. Thomas Cook Group and all UK entities including Thomas Cook Airlines entered compulsory liquidation on 23 September 2019.
The Boeing 747-400 is a large, long-range wide-body airliner produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes, an advanced variant of the initial Boeing 747. The "Advanced Series 300" was announced at the September 1984 Farnborough Airshow, targeting a 10% cost reduction with more efficient engines and 1,000 nautical miles [nmi] of additional range. Northwest Airlines became the first customer with an order for 10 aircraft on October 22, 1985. The first 747-400 was rolled out on January 26, 1988, and made its maiden flight on April 29, 1988. Type certification was received on January 9, 1989, and it entered service with NWA on February 9, 1989.
Catering is the business of providing food services at a remote site or a site such as a hotel, hospital, pub, aircraft, cruise ship, park, festival, filming location or film studio.
SATS Ltd. (SATS), an acronym derived from Singapore Airport Terminal Services, is a Singaporean airport service company that handles the main ground handling and in-flight catering service provider at its country's Changi Airport. SATS controls about 80% of Changi Airport's ground handling and catering business.
In aviation, aircraft ground handling or ground operations defines the servicing of an aircraft while it is on the ground and (usually) parked at a terminal gate of an airport.
An airline meal, airline food, or in-flight meal is a meal served to passengers on board a commercial airliner. These meals are prepared by specialist airline catering services and are normally served to passengers using an airline service trolley.
The galley is the compartment of a ship, train, or aircraft where food is cooked and prepared. It can also refer to a land-based kitchen on a naval base, or, from a kitchen design point of view, to a straight design of the kitchen layout.
On 14 February 1992, food contaminated with cholera was distributed to the passengers on Aerolíneas Argentinas Flight 386, sometimes referred to as the Valentine's Day flight. One of the passengers died from the illness.
As of July 2020, a total of 60 Boeing 747 aircraft, or just under 4% of the total number of 747s built, first flown commercially in 1970, have been involved in accidents and incidents resulting in a hull loss, meaning that the aircraft was either destroyed or damaged beyond economical repair. Of the 60 Boeing 747 aircraft losses, 32 resulted in no loss of life; in one, a hostage was murdered; and in one, a terrorist died. Some of the aircraft that were declared damaged beyond economical repair were older 747s that sustained relatively minor damage. Had these planes been newer, repairing them might have been economically viable, although with the 747's increasing obsolescence, this is becoming less common. Some 747s have been involved in accidents resulting in the highest death toll of any civil aviation accident, the highest death toll of any single airplane accident, and the highest death toll of a midair collision. As with most airliner accidents, the root of cause(s) in these incidents involved a confluence of multiple factors that rarely could be ascribed to flaws with the 747's design or its flying characteristics.
A polar route is an aircraft route across the uninhabited polar ice cap regions. The term "polar route" was originally applied to great circle navigation routes between Europe and the west coast of North America in the 1950s.
Northwest Airlines Flight 85 was a scheduled international passenger flight from Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport in the United States to Narita International Airport in Japan. On October 9, 2002, while over the Bering Sea, the Boeing 747-400 experienced a lower rudder hardover event, which occurs when an aircraft's rudder deflects to its travel limit without crew input. The 747's hardover gave full left lower rudder, requiring the pilots to use full right upper rudder and right aileron to maintain attitude and course.
An airline service trolley, also known as an airline catering trolley, airline meal trolley, or trolley cart, is a small serving cart supplied by an air carrier for use by flight attendants inside the aircraft for transport of beverages, airline meals, and other items during a flight.
Tower Air Flight 41 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) in New York City, to Miami International Airport (MIA) in Florida. On December 20, 1995, the Boeing 747-100 operating the flight veered off the runway during takeoff from JFK. All 468 people on board survived, but 25 people were injured. The aircraft was damaged beyond repair and written off, making the accident the 25th hull loss of a Boeing 747. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) concluded that the captain had failed to reject the takeoff in a timely manner.
Japan Air Lines Cargo Flight 46E was a scheduled cargo flight on 31 March 1993, operated by Evergreen International Airlines, on behalf of Japan Air Lines, from Anchorage International Airport, in Anchorage, Alaska, to O'Hare International Airport, in Chicago. After departure, while climbing through 2,000 feet, the pylon for engine two detached, causing the whole engine to fall off the wing. The pilots managed to land the 747 back at Anchorage without further incident.
{{cite journal}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)Authorities said Kenji Kuwabara, 52 years old, died of a single self‐inflicted gunshot in his Anchorage apartment. Mr. Kuwabara was the vice president of International Inflight Catering and was in charge of the Anchorage office of the Hawaii‐based concern, of which Japan Air Lines owns 51 per cent.
I have not seen an FAA requirement for a meal difference. Many airlines require different meals for members of the flight crew in the belief that it mitigates risk of food-borne illness, but it is a choice made by each operator.