It was February 3, 1975, and they were almost there. Just an hour and a half to go, and many of the 344 excited passengers would be on the final leg of their trip to Paris, France, for a vacation given as a gift from the Coca-Cola Company. The company had run a competition for their executives, the reward being a trip to Paris, along with their wives and families.
It was a long flight, about 20 hours including stopovers and flying time. The Japan Airlines flight had left from Tokyo’s Haneda Airport and made a stopover in Anchorage, Alaska, for fuel and food. After crossing the Arctic, it was breakfast time. The 20 flight attendants were busy heating up their egg and ham omelets, which the passengers were eagerly looking forward to. But little did they suspect that a strange and violent plague was suddenly going to overtake nearly 200 of them, all at the same time!
About an hour after eating their breakfast and 30 minutes before landing, disaster struck. Cries and moans filled the cabin as people began to experience severe abdominal cramps, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. The bathrooms were in sudden, high demand. Things went from bad to worse, as many passengers collapsed in the aisles, too weak to move. The pilots declared an emergency, landing in Copenhagen, Denmark, as quickly as possible.
Out of the 196 passengers and one flight attendant who fell ill, 144 of them were so sick that they had to be hospitalized, with 30 of them being in critical condition. But then yet another problem arose. None of the Danish doctors understood Japanese, and only a few of the Japanese patients understood English, let alone Danish. What to do? Thinking quickly, the doctors called local Japanese restaurants and asked if any who could speak Japanese would be willing to come in and translate. This solution worked perfectly, allowing doctors to quickly treat their patients.
These folks had been looking forward to sightseeing in Paris and having a good time. Now, suddenly, most of them were battling waves of violent sickness, with their vacation rapidly vanishing into thin air! This is why God warns us, “Boast not thyself of tomorrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth” (Proverbs 27:11Boast not thyself of to morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth. (Proverbs 27:1)). A Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl celebration shooting and a young mother instantly dead ... a cargo ship plowing into the Francis Scott Key bridge in Baltimore and six unsuspecting people dead. ... Just ordinary, daily living can be fragile. The Bible describes our lives this way: “Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away” (James 4:1414Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. (James 4:14)). Therefore, we are told, “Prepare to meet thy God” (Amos 4:1212Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel: and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel. (Amos 4:12)).
Unraveling the Mystery
Now investigators had to solve the mystery of why so many passengers got sick — and why so many of them didn’t. Why were the passengers sitting in the middle and front of the plane, including first class, the ones to get sick, while those sitting in the back of the plane were not affected? Having boarded the flight in Alaska, the pilots’ internal clocks were 10 hours behind everyone else’s, so they had opted for steak instead of omelets, which turned out to be a very wise choice!
Food poisoning from the fluffy egg and ham omelets was immediately suspected. Led by the Alaska State Health Department, testing revealed the culprit to be a bacteria called Staphylococcus aureus, more commonly called Staph. And yes, the omelets were loaded with these bacteria, but how had it happened?
They took a closer look at International Inflight Catering, an Alaska-based subsidiary of Japan Airlines where the food had been prepared. They discovered that after the trays of food had been prepared, they sat at room temperature for six hours before being refrigerated for 14½ hours. However, the trays were refrigerated at 50° instead of the necessary 40° needed to stop the growth of bacteria. Then the trays sat in the aircraft ovens for another eight hours before being heated. Twenty-eight hours was more than enough time for the bacteria to multiply and release poisonous toxins. Being heat resistant, the toxins were not destroyed when the omelets were heated up.
But where had these bacteria come from in the first place? It was discovered that three cooks had prepared the food for this flight. Upon further questioning, one of the cooks admitted that he had lesions on the middle and index fingers of his right hand. Though he didn’t ignore the situation, he simply wrapped bandages around his fingers, writing it off as a trivial matter — so trivial, in fact, that he didn’t even mention it to his employer, which he was supposed to do. Nor did the managers question the cooks as to whether they were in good health, which they were required to do. Sure enough, when tested, the cook’s fingers were the source of the Staph bacteria. It only takes 100 staphylococci to make someone ill. Because of improper storage, the bacteria were able to multiply rapidly, which is why people became so ill, so quickly. If the cook had worn gloves or if the meals had been stored at the proper temperature, this incident would never have happened.
The infected cook had prepared and handled food for three of the four galleys, including 40 meals in first class. Eighty-six percent of those who ate the omelets prepared by the infected cook fell ill, while the omelets prepared by the other cooks caused no harmful effects.
The Big Infection
There is an infection far worse than Staph that infects each one of us. We are all born with a sin nature and want to do our own will, selfishly going our own way, totally apart from God (Romans 3:10-1210As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: 11There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. 12They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. (Romans 3:10‑12)). “There is no difference; for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:22-2322Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: 23For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; (Romans 3:22‑23)). This is a blanket statement that includes all of us! Left to ourselves, we are all without hope, destined to hell and a lost eternity. But God’s heart of love found a way to redeem sinful men and women to Himself. It required His Son Jesus to come to this earth, to suffer, bleed and die on a shameful cross for our sins, and to rise from the dead on the third day. Jesus bore our punishment on the cross so that all who will believe in Him by faith can be freely forgiven and have eternal life. “Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:2424Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: (Romans 3:24)). “The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:2323For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23)).
Happily, all passengers were able to recover from their attack of food poisoning. It was suggested that crew members eat different meals prepared by different cooks so that they wouldn’t all be affected by food poisoning at once, a suggestion which many airlines have followed to this day. If the pilots had eaten the egg omelets and become as sick as some of the passengers, they might not have been able to land the plane safely. It was also emphasized that people with infected lesions should not handle food and that, as a precaution, gloves should be worn.
Tragic Deception
There was, however, one sad fatality from this incident. Kenji Kuwabara was the dignified manager of catering for Japan Airlines and was also the vice president of International Inflight Catering. The combination of bad publicity, damaged company reputation, flaws in the company’s system exposed by the cook’s lesioned fingers along with improper food storage, including his personal responsibility as head of the Anchorage office, and losing face was just too much for him to bear. Just days after the incident, in his apartment in Anchorage, he committed suicide. He was only 52 years old. He had worked for the company for 25 years and left behind many grieving friends and coworkers besides his wife and four children.
How sad that he had listened to one of Satan’s lies! Satan likes to deceive people by telling them that their lives are so hopeless and so full of despair that there is no remedy and that the only solution is to end their lives. Jesus tells us, “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.” But Jesus then went on to say, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:1010The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. (John 10:10)). We must each make a choice — will it be to repent of your sins and ask God to forgive you, or will it be to reject His offer of love and the free gift of forgiveness and eternal life? “He that believeth on the Son [Jesus] hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him” (John 3:3636He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him. (John 3:36)).
Normal days can have sudden tragic twists. Man Falls Into Man-Made Hole gives a chilling example.