Charlotte Observer | 11/09/2002 | Boy's research launches probe

With his small thermal cooler packed with petri dishes, filters, agar, vials and a syringe, Zach took samples of water from the airplane's galleys and lavatory taps, just to see what it might contain.

He tested the waters on nine different flights and found seven were contaminated with E.coli, fecal coliform or salmonella. In one, he even found insect eggs.

"It was pretty gross," said Zach, now a high school freshman at Las Lomas High School in Walnut Creek, Calif.