It was just chance that the pilot and first officer had not eaten any of the contaminated omelettes, as the airline had no regulations regarding crew meals. As the pilots’ biological clocks were on Alaska time rather than European time, they had opted for a dinner of steaks instead of omelettes—had they not done so, they might not have been capable of landing the aircraft safely. [Health Department investigator Dr. Mickey S.] Eisenberg suggested that cockpit crew members eat different meals prepared by different cooks to prevent food poisoning outbreaks from incapacitating the entire crew, a rule subsequently implemented by many airlines.

What’s wild is this whole incident is basically the plot of Airplane! and the movie it remade, *Zero Hour! Airplane! was released in 1980, five years after the incident, but Zero Hour! was released in 1957 and based on a 1956 teleplay called Flight into Danger, all with the plot of an airliner full of food-poisoned passengers and an incapacitated crew. Or it would’ve been the plot had the pilots eaten the contaminated food.