I have heard tales about aircrew and food poisoning events for decades, but had never experienced it, firsthand, until a few days ago. I am careful about what I eat, anyway, so it is even more unbelievable that it could have happened to me. On a Seattle overnight, I ate a light dinner at a nationwide restaurant chain, and then a few hours later was hugging the ceramic sideband (toilet) most of the night. The following morning, I was able to fly back to the nest, or rather, the co-pilot flew back to the nest while I took care of the paperwork and communications. I called in sick, went home and collapsed on my favorite couch for two days. The wife of my youth doctored me back to health, minus eight pounds, with "Poor Babies" and "Honey, can I get you anythings?" She almost made it worth being sick...
Tonight, our main landing gear touched down 40 minutes early in Newark, thanks to strong tailwinds. Enroute, the number one flight attendant prepared our crewmeals, which I could not look at or smell of, without feelings of nausea. No problem, though... My co-pilot is a young guy, more than six feet tall, who will eat anything that does not eat him first. He ate both of the crewmeals and was looking for more.
After the hotel van dropped us at the front desk, the co-pilot pointed out a restaurant across the street, the same chain that poisoned me in Seattle. He asked, "I'm still hungry. You wanna get something to eat?"
Yikes!!
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
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11 comments:
Hi Dave, your story reminded me of the movie "Airplane" and how a passenger had to land a B707, since the crew had been "disabled" due to food poisoning!!! I wonder if it would even be possible for a regular fellow to land an A320 by having someone on the radio talk him through it. Maybe someone could give him instructions to program and configure the "Autoland" feature in the A320...I hear it flies the approach, flares, closes the throttles and brings the aircraft to a stop, without any pilot input. Just sit and watch (monitor)!
By the way....Can you give any hints, without mentioning the actual name of the food chain that made you so sick? :)
Diego
sky roamer, it depends on the definition of "regular fellow"; an experienced pilot, like a biz jet pilot, could probably be talked down to a survivable landing in the A320/319, maybe... A private pilot, as in week-end Cessna flyer, would be more problematic. It's easy to fantasize about landing a big airliner in an emergency, but would be hard to do because of problems the "regular fellow" would not be familiar with, like kinetic energy, large jet engine thrust management, sink rates, airspeed management, flight control operation laws, etc. The A320/319, in normal flight parameters, has a nasty little surprize when it reaches a critically low energy state. It goes into save the aircraft mode and will try to remove itself from that low energy state (stall) by applying maximum thrust. This has been a contributing factor in two infamous A320 accidents. If that happened while a regular fellow was at the controls, see ya later... Yep, the A320/319 have autoland capability, but it is designed for the experienced crew to engage and manage. I do not think a pilot unfamiliar with the system could manage it, even if being talked down on the radio. It is complex to the nth degree.
I'd rather not hint about the restaurant...
Dave, I hope you are feeling better and are on to a quick recovery. Food poisoning in not fun. Keep the stories coming.
Have you ever seen anything like this before?
http://snipurl.com/xefq
Bees on a jetliner!
"I'd rather not hint about the restaurant..."
Well, why not. You would not be telling a lie. I can't see why telling a true story should get you into trouble. Let's not think like lawyers, let's think like humans. To my understanding, telling the truth is in favour of all of us human beings so there possibly can't be anything wrong with it.
As my dad always says: Everything you say should be true although you might want to decide not to tell everything that's true.
This leaves both options open, but note that the purpose of this strategy is to not get you into trouble. Others need to take responsibility of what they contributed to the truth. Even if they are nation-wide (world-wide?) food chains with a possibly questionable moral and quality assurance process.
In other words: You should be fine with both options that my dad's quote offers.
I've only had food poisoning once, and that was after eating at a national chain restaurant at LAX. The flight out to Hawaii was not fun......
Dave, I hope you are feeling better and are on to a quick recovery. Food poisoning in not fun. Keep the stories coming.
Have you ever seen anything like this before?
http://snipurl.com/xefq
I'll bet they were suprised later.
Dave - Thanks for your reply. After spending 10 flight hours learning how to make not a "good landing", but only a "survivable landing" on a Cessna 152, I totally agree with you, and a "regular fellow" trying to land an A320. Sink rates can even get you in trouble in a C-152 on a short landing when you hang that airplane by the prop. Cant even imagine what a "runaway" sink rate must feel like in an A320, particularly given the slow response time of jet engines.
Now, the stuff about the Airbus "taking over" in a low energy situtation, or during ANY other flight regime kinda gives me the creeps :)
Sky roamer
Ack!
Sorry to hear about the stomach troubles, but reading your blog archives over the past few days has made me feel a LOT better about my flight to Orlando in 3 more weeks, the thought of which has been keeping me up nights.
It was bad enough when it was going to be on a 767, but now we've been switched to an MD 88 which I'm sure is a fine plane, but now I'll have to deal with claustrophobia AND fear of flying. :-P
anonymous, negative on the bees. I have never seen anything like that on an airliner. I wonder how long they could hang on...
I think he was feeling Ill in the neighborhood. Am I close?
I'm always dubious about food poisoning claims because I was of the understanding that it can take a day or two to set in, not within hours. It could have been a meal two days before.
Either way glad you're back with us and airborne.
For many, including me, there is an instinctive "knowing" of the offending food with food poisoning. The mere thought or reminder of that item sends the body into abhorrent spasms!
Hope you're feeling well again, Dave, after all the TLC at home.
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