A Delta Air Lines flight from Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport to Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (AMS) was turned around mid-flight and diverted to New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport at 4am this morning.
According to the Daily Mail, “passengers were served ‘contaminated food’ during the flight.” It’s not clear who noticed the food was spoiled, how it was contaminated or how many passengers ate it.”
The article goes on to explain, “there were 277 customers on board the A330 and according to Flight Aware DL136 departed from DTW at 10:51pm on Tuesday and landed at JFK at 3:59am. Total flight time was 5 hours and 8 minutes which is just 2 hours and 11 minutes less than what the original flight would have taken.
As you can imagine passengers are irate for being served contaminated food and having their travel plans foiled. One passenger named Virginia took to social media and posted this on X, “.@delta I need to know how you’re going to get me to Amsterdam today – I’m on the plane that’s emergency landing at JFK because you served passengers “contaminated” food – I don’t need hotel/food vouchers I need to arrive in Amsterdam today.”
.@delta I need to know how you’re going to get me to Amsterdam today – I’m on the plane that’s emergency landing at JFK because you served passengers “contaminated” food – I don’t need hotel/food vouchers I need to arrive in Amsterdam today.
— Virginia (@tralala_bk) July 3, 2024
According to Detroit’s Fox 2, Delta Air Lines issued a statement, confirming the diversion and apologized for the problem. “Delta flight 136 from Detroit to Amsterdam diverted to New York’s JFK early Wednesday morning after reports that a portion of the Main Cabin in-flight meal service were spoiled. Medical crews met the aircraft to treat any affected passengers and crew members. Delta’s Food Safety team has engaged our suppliers to immediately isolate the product and launch a thorough investigation into the incident. This is not the service Delta is known for and we sincerely apologize to our customers for the inconvenience and delay in their travels.”
This is a good example of why pilots don’t eat the same meals as passengers or their crew. If you’ve ever seen the 1980 movie Airplane (clip embedded below), you likely remember the scene after the crew becomes sick with food poisoning.
Reading stories like this makes you want to pack your own meal while flying. Hopefully everyone is okay but for Delta to make this diversion before the you-know-what hit the fan is commendable because they’re about to get an onslaught of negative press worldwide. RELATED: You probably won’t be drinking the water, coffee or tea on airplanes after reading this
On a related note, Bloomberg ran a story yesterday titled, “Airline caterer Gate Gourmet inches closer to possible strike,” in which they say, “Gate Gourmet and unions representing some of its workers were released from mandatory labor talks, moving the airline catering company one step closer to a strike that would cause problems for US carriers this summer. The National Mediation Board said Monday that a 30-day “cooling off” period had begun for the company and labor groups Unite Here and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.” RELATED: Why you shouldn’t drink coffee, tea or tap water on a plane
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Sounds to me like this food was put on purposely with the continuous labor talks with Delta and it’s food supplier