The risk of having multiple passengers all get sick at the same time is any flight crew's worst nightmare. It has also frequently been used as a plot twist and comedic element throughout film history.
In the cult 1980 movie "Airplane!" a random passenger has to step up to land the plane after multiple passengers and members of the air crew all fall ill after eating the same in-flight fish meal (the high risks around it is also why fish of any kind is now rarely served onboard.)
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But despite the stricter food safety rules that the industry has worked in throughout the decades, accidents and mysterious bouts of illness do occur. During a budget airline Condor flight back to Germany from the African island nation of Mauritius on May 9, 70 of the 290 travelers aboard became seriously "ill" and needed motion sickness bags throughout the length of the flight.
Airline about mystery illness: 'We generally do not participate in speculation'
No members of the air crew were affected and Frankfurt-based Condor released a statement saying it was working to figure out what caused the mystery illness.
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"Condor is working closely with all responsible partners and authorities," the airline said in a statement to German news outlet Bild. "There is currently no result available. We generally do not participate in speculation about the cause, for example about individual menus on board that were prepared in Mauritius."
The flight took over 12 hours and, upon landing at Frankfurt International Airport, passengers were taken in for medical examination and help where needed. No instances of serious illness requiring hospitalization were reported.
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'Cared for these passengers by providing additional airsick bags'
"The crew cared for these passengers by providing additional liquids and airsick bags as required until further medical assistance was available," an airline spokesperson said in a further statement. "As a precautionary measure, Frankfurt Airport and the relevant authorities on the ground were informed to ensure medical care was made available upon arrival in Frankfurt."
To avoid a similar situation playing out a second time, Condor also said that it is putting in "additional and more intensive cleaning measures for all objects and surfaces" and completely reworking the menu it serves on flights from Mauritius as it waits to learn what caused the illness.
While rare, in-flight incidents of illness or food poisoning do occasionally occur. In October 2022, a TUI Airways flight shuttling holidayers from the United Kingdom to Florida had to make an unplanned 24-hour stopover in Maine after one of the two pilots became "incapacitated" due to food poisoning from something eaten before the flight.
The most famous food poisoning incident dates back to 1975 when 197 people aboard a Japan Air Lines (JPNRF) flight from Alaska to Copenhagen got Straphylococcus food poisoning after eating the in-flight meal of ham omelettes. As the worst case of in-flight food poisoning in aviation history, the incident is still today often used as an example of menu planning gone wrong and how carelessness can cause a major disaster (as soon as the plane landed in Copenhagen, numerous passengers had to be rushed to makeshift emergency stations at the airport.)
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