No, David, actually food poisoning usually occurs within an hour of eating. Anything that kicks in later might be traced to a different virus or bacteria that could come from anywhere including a food handler.

WRONG. I got food poisoning and presented symptoms approximately THREE hours after ingesting the food that gave it to me. I'm not saying he did have food poisoning from in-flight food. I'm just saying your EIGHT HOUR timetable does not always apply. There are several types of food poisoning.

The time of onset for food poisoning symptoms is multi factorial. It depends on the bacteria that is carrying the toxin, the amount of that toxin, and the health and genetic makeup of the particular individual. For example, most people will express symptoms to salmonella 8 to 12 hours after ingestion, and may in fact have another meal sometime prior to showing symptoms, thus clouding the actual source of the problem and the perceived timing.

Something like E. coli 0157:H7, which is typically due to fecal matter and is easily transported in water, may or may not take days to express itself.

On the other hand, many people will show an almost immediate reaction to toxins found in shellfish or other seafood.

There are some toxins that can take days and even weeks to express themselves as symptoms.

And of course there are the issues of allergic reactions and how they manifest themselves as symptoms in the person in question. Many times, a person that thinks they have contracted food poisoning is in fact allergic to a particular item in the meal.

In this case, while improperly prepared chicken runs the risk of carrying salmonella, it can also carry staph and even listeria. Plus there are other foods in the same dish that can cause problems.

People often ask why they have not been affected after having eaten the same dish as someone who has fallen ill. The answer is that bacterial contamination can occur in "hot spots" and may or may not be in a homogeneous presence or concentration throughout the dish.

In terms of the validity of such a suit, I suppose that the deceased may have boarded the plane feeling crappy but not necessarily dire. Perhaps as the flight continued things turned substantially worse in terms of how he felt. There really aren't enough details in the article to be able base much of an opinion one way or the other for me.

Spoonster information is correct. But I'd like to point out that early symptoms of a heart attack often mimic gastrointestinal problems. It's not uncommon for heart attack victims to be found slumped over on the toilet because they mistook their symptoms for vomiting/diarrhea. I'm suspicious that this man didn't have food poisoning, but was actually in the process of having a heart attack the whole time.

One of my co-workers at the hospital where I work ate some bad seafood, and within 1 hour she was vomiting, had terrible cramps, diarrhea, and was in the hospital for 4 days. The ER physician said he usually sees onset in 1-8 hours.