Do you remember Captain Oveur, in Airplane! movie ? No, this post is not about gladiators, but food poisoning. I discussed recently what happens when a pilot becomes suddenly incapacitated, and poisoning is a possible cause.

90 minutes
Human Factors book says “Symptoms of poisoning appear 90 minutes after eating the contaminated food”. This average value depends of the poison and the person, so it’s just a general guideline. Poisoning will not start hours after ingestion, nor within few seconds – I’m talking of bad food, not poison.

If you’re operating a flight longer than one hour, or if you had lunch couple of hours before take-off, you’re potentially at risk. This kind of incapacitation is normally progressive, so just monitor the early signs, and if you’re signle pilot, land at first doubt !

To eat or not to eat ?
Longer flights create the opportunity / need for in-flight snack. A reload of high-carb food helps to maintain high level of concentration, and makes long cruise look shorter. Because of the 90 minutes rule of thumb, it’s certainly a good choice to have your snack in the last hour only.

Even if you don’t eat don’t forget to drink ! Dehydration can have strong impact on pilot’s performance and as hypoxia it is not easy to detect.

Fish AND chicken, please !
If you fly with a fellow pilot, a safety pilot, or an instructor, or even an “educated passenger”, pick different items on the menu ! Can you even imagine how silly would be an incident report stating “Both crew members poisoned by non-fresh oysters” as a cause ? Bloody oysters…

Even if you’re not lucky enough to choose from a menu, avoid sharing food and drinks with your life insurance (a.k.a. co-pilot).