More tone deafness from the QAN Chairman:
My Qantas flight from hell after ‘security breach’
[BCOLOR=rgba(0,0,0,0)]Patrick Durkin[/BCOLOR]BOSS Deputy editor
Sep 8, 2022 – 4.40pm
The soggy chicken pie served on Qantas flight QF487 from Sydney to Melbourne on Wednesday night probably should have been the first sign that something was amiss.
The scheduled 7pm flight was already delayed by more than 30 minutes – baggage handling issues the pilot informed us – and landed close to 9.30pm when the captain dropped the bombshell that none of us would be going home anytime soon.
Qantas Airlines and Alan Joyce has hit stormy weather with the public. Bloomberg
The flight had been deemed an “unscreened flight” and the 225 passengers onboard the Airbus a330 would be met by the Australian Federal Police, Victorian Police and airport security and escorted directly to be screened by security before we could depart.
‘What’s an unscreened flight?’ I asked the flight attendant, who explained that someone, somehow must have avoided airport security at Sydney Airport. But she said she had never seen it in more than 20 years of flying.
Striking up new friendships, we all had the same question. ‘How the hell had someone avoided airport security?’ Most of us had been forced to strip our jackets, belts, shoes and laptops in the usual security procession.
It was made clear that we were not to stop for the toilet, put anything in a rubbish bin, or drop anything from our person on our way out.
The initial frustration gave way to slight alarm when we were greeted by the dozen or more security, including several AFP officers armed with heavy weapons. It was all done and dusted in about 20 minutes in the end.
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[BCOLOR=rgba(0,0,0,0)]Sep 7, 2022[/BCOLOR]
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Qantas flight QF487 Syd - Melb just landed deemed unscreened flight. All 200+ passengers will be escorted by AFP, Vic Police, security - no toilet stops - to security screening. Flight attendant never heard it happening over 20 years flying [BCOLOR=rgba(0,0,0,0)]@Qantas[/BCOLOR][BCOLOR=rgba(0,0,0,0)]@StephenLongAus[/BCOLOR][BCOLOR=rgba(0,0,0,0)]@4corners[/BCOLOR]
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But my instincts as a journalist kicked in and I made a point of capturing a few photos and getting some basic but important details about the flight.
Qantas said later in a statement that: “a passenger on a Sydney to Melbourne service boarded the flight after inadvertently passing from an ‘unscreened’ to a ‘screened’ part of the airport in Sydney.
But by Tuesday morning, a passenger who alerted Qantas staff to the security issue claimed that up to 60 travellers had not been screened before boarding the flight.
The man identified by Melbourne radio
3AW as Bob said he boarded a flight at Orange, where there are no security scans in place.
When he arrived at Sydney he, along with the other passengers onboard his Qantas-connect flight, were allowed to walk directly into the airport lounge for connecting flights.
Qantas and Sydney Airport say they are investigating but believe it was a mistake, rather than anything sinister. But such is the heightened public consciousness to Qantas and CEO Alan Joyce right now that the public and media reaction was off the charts.
‘It’s all Alan at the moment’
Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce is under pressure. James Brickwood.
My tweet has had over 34,000 ‘engagements’ and I was interviewed on Channel Nine, Seven and Ten news, ABC morning radio, Nine’s
Today show, Ten’s
The Project and newspapers
The Age and
The Guardian among others about my experience.
National Secretary of the TWU Michael Kaine was quick to connect it to this week’s ABC
Four Corners report that staff cuts had reduced safety standards.
“There are two critical things in aviation: safety and security. This week we’ve seen major issues with both. A mass exodus of experienced workers from aviation and understaffing are to blame,” he says.
Privately, Qantas insiders say the TV headlines of “chaos” and “emergency” were totally overblown, and the issue may as much the fault of Sydney Airport as Qantas.
But Qantas chairman Richard Goyder is acutely aware that his airline and CEO Alan Joyce can’t afford even the perception of more mistakes.
“Alan mentioned it to me this morning and of course Qantas gets blamed but that’s an airport issue,” Goyder told
The Australian Financial Review. “It’s all Qantas at the moment and it’s all Alan.”
“Every time the aircraft engineers come out and say there’s an issue at Qantas, it’s 100 per cent correlation to when they have a pay claim in.
“They are after a 12 per cent pay increase and all of a sudden, there’s safety issues at Qantas. Previous safety issues were back in 2015 when negotiating and 2011 when he was negotiating, so it’s an amazing co-incidence.”
On Thursday,
[BCOLOR=rgba(0,0,0,0)]Kaine revealed that Dnata[/BCOLOR] ground workers would receive a 17.2 per cent increase by July next year including 12.6 per cent immediately as soon as agreement approved. Sometime the old tricks still work best.