Gate Gourmet Provided Delta Airlines With Sandwiches That Contained Needles
There’s something strange going on around the world with needles. Today we learned of the dentist in Denver, Colorado, who used old syringes and needles that may have exposed 1,000s of his patients to HIV and/or hepatitis diseases. Now we have the situation with Delta Airlines, in which four turkey sandwiches found on separate flights from Amsterdam to the United States, contained what the airline is referring to as sewing needles. The “needle sandwiches” were found on flights from the Netherlands to Minneapolis, to Seattle, and on two flights to Atlanta. Two needles were discovered by passengers- one of which actually suffered an injury but refused medical treatment upon landing. All 18 flights from Amsterdam were told to stop serving the sandwiches after the first two discoveries.
Gate Gourmet, the company that provided the sandwiches to Delta, said the sandwiches originated in Amsterdam. The company has been in existence since 1992.
“This is a terribly upsetting situation,” said Gate Gourmet spokeswoman Christina Ulosevich. “First and foremost is the safety of the traveling public. There’s nothing more important to us at all than the safety of the passengers and crews.”
In the meantime, Delta is now serving sealed prepackaged food on these flights instead of the sandwiches, and no other needles have been found. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is aware of the incident and says it informed all U.S. airlines with flights from Schiphol to the United States of the findings. According to TSA spokesman, David Caselveter, TSA is closely monitoring the review of the incident as well as the security protocols being conducted by the air carrier and the airport authority.
Gate Gourmet is fully cooperating with federal and local authorities involved in the investigation.
