Tokyo Olympics 2021: Australian teams under investigation after wild Japan Airlines flight

Australia’s chef de mission says he is “disappointed” in the athletes involved in Friday’s drunken flight home, as investigations continue to reveal who was responsible.

Australian chef de mission Ian Chesterman said he is disappointed with the athletes involved in Friday’s drunken flight home, as an investigation continues.

Mr Chesterman said staff at Japan Airlines had advised him that “team members had drunk excessively’’ and failed to respond to instructions from JAL staff while disrupting other passengers.

He said there were 49 team members from nine sports on the flight.

He said that on Tuesday afternoon, both rugby and football officials had issued public statements apologising for the behaviour of their members.

Football Australia and Rugby Australia have advised they have started formal investigations.

Ian Chesterman says he is ‘disappointed’ in the athletes. Picture: Getty Images

“The AOC considers it is appropriate to wait for the conclusion of this process before deciding next steps,” Mr Chesterman said.

“Can I also say how deeply disappointed I am in this behaviour.

“This is a proud team, performing brilliantly after a very, very challenging preparation.

“And the vast, vast majority have conducted themselves superbly both on and off the field.’’

He said one member “at least vomited into the toilet’’.

Asked if the fridge on the aircraft was raided, he said he needed to wait for further information.

“The specifics of who is involved, we don’t know,’’ he said.

He said the sports involved were taking it very seriously and had referred the issues to their integrity commission.

He said he was “not surprised’’ other athletes were appalled by their teammates’ behaviour on the plane.

But he said the athletes involved were “not bad people’’.

Mr Chesterman said he wanted to make sure he had proper facts at hand before the matter was brought forward publicly.

He said there had been an incident in one of the rooms of the Rugby sevens, the same night there was an incident in a rowing room.

Some of the rugby sevens rooms had then been left in a unacceptable state when the players left to fly out to Australia.

“I don’t think the behaviours of a few should be able to tarnish the reputations of the whole team.

“And that’s why I’m so upset about this.’’

Alcohol is banned on the three charters the AOC is using to fly people back to Australia.

“We have a situation where probably the vast majority of people left (in Tokyo) will be on our charters, which are fully dry,’’ he said.

“There’s complications on having dry flights on commercial flights.’’

Earlier: Rugby and soccer involved in flight

The Olyroos and the rugby Seven’s mens Olympic teams are under a series of immediate investigations following a written complaint sent from Japan Airlines to the Australian Olympic Committee about obnoxious and unsafe behaviour on a flight home.

Both teams were involved in hours of rowdy and drunken antics on the 10-hour flight from Tokyo to Sydney which arrived on Friday morning.

Passengers on the flight have told News Corp that the men were “loud, singing, refusing to sit down when requested, rowdy and obnoxious’’.

“Obviously they weren’t wearing their masks as they were drinking all the time,’’ said a passenger.

Around halfway through the flight some of the players were terribly drunk and more than one began vomiting and one toilet nearby was “wasted”.

Airline staff on board were frustrated because the athletes refused to heed instructions to sit down, and they kept raiding alcohol from the galley at the rear of the Boeing 787, despite pleas from the airline staff not to do so.

It is unusual for an airline to acknowledge any issues and highly rare for them to file a written complaint.

Japan Airlines wrote to the AOC complaining about the behaviour. Picture: AFP Images

The soccer players were at the rear of the aircraft and only began to engage in the hijinks when some of the rugby players — chanting and singing loudly further up in the cabin — came to the back.

“Players hadn’t seen each other during the Olympics and so this was the first time they had a chance to catch up,’’ said a source.

One passenger, also a member of the Australian Olympic team, said he was “mortified’’ at the players’ behaviour.

The players had let their hair down after being cooped up in the Olympic village and a sub-site hotel under strict conditions, where they were only allowed to travel between their accommodations and their competition venues.

Australia’s mens sevens only managed to beat Korea in the group stage before losing to Fiji 19-0 in the quarterfinals. The Olyroos started the Olympics with a shock win over Argentina but failed to get past the group stage.

Olympic athletes remain under the control of the Australian Olympic Committee until they exit two weeks of mandatory quarantine.

However, despite two days of questions about the behaviour of some athletes in the Olympic village, the AOC kept quiet about the airline shenanigans, which happened five days ago.

The sevens team was also read the riot act by the Australian Olympic Committee after a night of partying before they were due to leave Japan after a room, believed to be the team meeting room, was left in a disgraceful state.

Separately, the men’s rowing team, which was not on this particular flight, have been also reprimanded by Olympic officials for smashing a hole in a wall, damaging the beds and leaving vomit in the room after a wild night.

Rugby Australia said in a statement they had been made aware of incidents involving the Australian Men’s Sevens program on a flight.

“Rugby Australia has begun its own internal investigation into the matter based on the information provided by the AOC, the statement said.

“Rugby Australia expects the highest standards of all its employees, modelling the values of our game — respect, integrity, passion and teamwork.”

A spokesman for Football Federation Australia said it is aware of unacceptable behaviour of some athletes on board the flight.

“Football Australia is discussing the matter with the AOC and is taking the responsibility to investigate the involvement of any footballers’.

Other athletes from other sports, such as surfing, badminton and shooting were on the same flight, but were not involved.

AOC chief executive Matt Carroll said the sports were to deal with the behavioural issues of their players and officials.

The AOC said it was made aware of unacceptable behaviour by Australian Olympic Team members on the flight and took immediate action, convening a meeting of the chief executives of the sports that had representatives on the flight.

AOC chief executive Matt Carroll said the two football codes were taking full responsibility for their players.

“It’s extremely disappointing,’’ said Mr Carroll.

“But both Rugby and Football have told me that such behaviour is certainly not acceptable within their sports and have sincerely apologised to the Australian Olympic Team. The CEOs have undertaken to take the appropriate action and report back to us”.

Originally published as Tokyo Olympics 2021: Australian teams under investigation after wild Japan Airlines flight