Needles Found in Food on Delta Airlines Flights

Airline food already has a reputation for being pretty bad, but passengers on some Delta Airlines flights got an added and unwated ingredient in their airplane meal--needles.

The FBI and Delta Airlines are investigating the issue after sewing needles were found in five different turkey sandwiches that were served on board four different flights from Amsterdam. All the passengers who had the needles in their sandwiches were sitting in business class. One passenger headed to Minneapolis suffered an inury after biting into the sandwich but they refused medical attention upon landing.

The other needles were found by passengers on two Delta flight going from Amsterdam to Atlanta and the other was found on a flight headed to Seattle. In a futher post-flight inspection, another needle was found by officials on another Minneapolis-bound flight.

After learning of the incidents, Delta stopped serving the sandwiches to passengers and they did not find any other needles in the foodon other flights leaving from Amsterdam.

"Delta is taking this matter extremely seriously and is cooperating with local and federal authorities who are investigating," Delta said Monday in a statement quoted by The Wall Street Journal. "Delta has taken immediate action with our in-flight caterer at Amsterdam to ensure the safety and quality of the food we provide onboard our aircraft."

The sandwiches were made by catering company Gate Gourmet. According to Delta, food providers must "adhere to strict criteria in order to offer our customers the very best onboard meals. The safety and security of our passengers and crew is Delta's No. 1 priority."

A spokeperson for Gate Gourmet said, "We take this matter very seriously, and we have launched our own full-scale investigation." They also said they were "heightening our already stringent safety and security procedures, to prevent any recurrence."

The FBI has started a criminal investigation into the incident and the Transportation Security Administration has alerted other airlines to keep a lookout for more needles to see if the issue expand beyond Delta Airlines.