Denver airline kitchen full of roaches, ants and listeria

by Scott Carmichael on

Earlier today, Tom wrote how airport food scores lower on the inspection chart than airline food.

That may be true for most places, but food prepared in the LSG Skychefs kitchen in Denver doesn’t match those findings.

When an FDA (Food and Drug Administration) inspection team paid a visit to the Denver kitchens of LSG , it found the kind of mess you’d expect from a big city restaurant with bad management.

Inside a facility in charge of making our airline meals, the FDA found so many insects, that they categorized them “TNTC” – too numerous to count.

It found roaches and ants in the repack area, wash rooms, cart washing stations, silverware station and even in the “hot” kitchen. In addition to this, they observed staff handling food with bare hands, water dripping from the ceiling, standing water and several other pretty serious violations.

The worst part, and the finding that frightens me the most, is that the FDA also found samples of Listeria on the floor in the hot kitchen. With poor results like this, it was only a matter of time before planeloads of passengers got sick from the food prepared by this kitchen. You can read the entire facility report here.

LSG Skychefs has had its classification lowered from “approved” to “provisional”, which means they’ll have one chance to be re-evaluated, and a failure will force the FDA to shut down the facility.

An LSG Skychefs representative said they can’t wait for the re-inspection and that they took immediate and effective action as soon as it learned from the findings. They make the whole incident sound fairly trivial by pointing out that they had not received any reports of illnesses or complaints from travelers.


Be sure to check out our breaking news about possible new TSA rules resulting from last week’s attempted terrorist attack.

%Gallery-11806%

%Gallery-8934%

Airport food nastier than airline food

by Tom Johansmeyer on

And you thought airline food was nasty …

Airport restaurants have been spanked hundreds of times over the past year for food safety violations, according to a USA Today review of inspection records. Check it out – close to 800 restaurants in 10 airports had tuna and turkey sandwiches that weren’t kept cold enough, raw meat getting a little too chummy with ready-to-eat meals, rat droppings and kitchens that didn’t have soap for employee hand-washing.

Blech.

Yea, it gets nastier. Forty-two percent of the 57 restaurants at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport were found to have at least one “critical” violation each. At Reagan National Airport, it was even more disgusting: 77 percent of 35 restaurants. These were violations of a caliber that make the risk of illness common.

JFK, apparently, isn’t so bad. According to the New York City health department, “Restaurants at JFK have had relatively few problems with rodents in comparison to restaurants citywide.”

That’s one hell of a vote of confidence!

[Photo by asplosh via Flickr]

The most over-the-top first class cabins

by Katie Hammel on

While most coach flyers would kill for a little extra leg room and a free bag of peanuts, first class passengers are often living the good life with free-flowing drinks and fully-reclining seats. But there are some first class cabins that go beyond simply luxury and begin to cross into the land of excess.

For example, according to a post on Divine Caroline, Singapore Airlines offers its first class passengers Givenchy sleepwear, Ferragamo toiletry kits and personalized turndown service. Jet Airways welcomes passengers into their own private room with a door that shuts for privacy, while on Emirates, they get their very own suite, complete with personal lounge and shower.

On Lufthansa, the VIP service starts before you even board, as a Mercedes Benz chauffeurs you to the plane. Qatar Airways’ first class lounge has a Jacuzzi and full-service spa.

Some airlines turn your seat into a cinema or a four-star restaurant. Qantas Airlines’ first class seats offer a 400-channel entertainment center and an eight-course meal with wine pairings. Seats on Cathay Pacific have built massagers and flight attendants cook each passenger’s breakfast to order.

And here I was just hoping for a good in-flight movie and a few free drinks. . .

%Gallery-76818%

American Airlines jet skids off Kingston runway – breaks in two

by Scott Carmichael on

Details are still quite sketchy at the moment, but late last night, an American Airlines jet landed at Norman Manley airport in Kingston, Jamaica. It then skidded towards the end of the runway, and split in two.

Passengers reported that the plane made a large “bang”, then never slowed down when it hit the tarmac, and that they actually saw the plane break in half. The plane ended up crossing a road, and came to rest on the beach.

An American Airlines spokesperson denies this, and says there are just some minor cracks. The photo on the right (from Gizmodo.com) pretty much confirms the passengers statements, as it clearly shows two pieces of fuselage.

There are no fatalities, and only 40 minor injuries, which is a miracle, considering how devastating this accident could have been. The plane had origininated in Washington, and made a stop in Miami, before proceeding to Kingston.

Is this the end of three-hour waits on the tarmac?

by Aaron Hotfelder on

Over the last few years, we’ve heard countless stories of airlines who have allowed their passengers to spend hours stranded in a plane on the runway. Finally, those nightmare scenarios look like they’re about to come to an end.

Yesterday, the Obama administration announced that, beginning this spring, airlines whose passengers sit for more than three hours at a time on the tarmac will face stiff penalties of up to $275,000 per passenger. The new rules, which Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood calls “President Obama’s Passenger Bill of Rights,” also force airlines to offer passengers food and water after they’ve been on the tarmac for two hours.

Many “passengers’ rights” groups are pleased with the administration’s decision. FlyersRights founder Kate Hanni called the move a “Christmas miracle.” “No more will they be able to strand passengers for over three hours in hot, sweaty, metal tubes,” she said.

But not everyone is thrilled with the Obama administration’s “Christmas gift” to travelers. David Castelveter of the Air Transport Association said that this move will result in more cancellations than there are today. If a plane has been waiting on the runway for almost three hours and is told it will take off in five minutes, a passenger who asks to be let off may cause the entire flight to be canceled.

Secretary LaHood discounted the importance of that hypothetical. “You know as well as I do that five minutes always extends out to 50 minutes, and almost always to five hours. There’s no such thing as five minutes, never, ever.”

Castelveter also noted that planes that let off passengers will have to abandon their spot in the take-off queue, taxi back to the gate, have baggage handlers remove the luggage, and during the winter months, de-ice the plane. The delays resulting from letting off the passengers could be much longer than the delays without it.

More here.

What do you think? Are the benefits of ending three-hour waits worth the costs?