Baggage carrier crash at Darwin International Airport sparks union call for ‘urgent’ investigation
The Transport Workers’ Union is calling for ‘urgent investigations into Qantas’s entire ground operations’ after a baggage carrier crashed into a plane at Darwin Airport on Friday.
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THE Transport Workers’ Union is calling for “urgent investigations into Qantas’s entire ground operations” after a baggage carrier crashed into a plane at Darwin Airport on Friday.
TWU SA/NT branch secretary Ian Smith said the crash was a serious incident that could have resulted in injuries to workers or passengers.
“This is not an isolated incident and it follows a long list of problems in Qantas’s ground operations across the country since the airline outsourced its entire ground workers,” he said.
“We are calling on all relevant workplace and aviation authorities to investigate Qantas’s operations urgently.”
Mr Smith called on both the Qantas board and the federal government to start holding senior Qantas management to account.
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“Serious questions must be asked of the Qantas board and the federal government which have stood by and allowed standards to get dragged down to the point that we have extensive damage of aircraft and workers and passengers narrowly escaping injury,” he said.
“The public has pumped $2 billion into Qantas since the pandemic hit and all we have to show for it is outsourced workers and safety breaches.”
But a Qantas spokesman said ground handling aircraft damage incidents had halved since the work was outsourced.
“Only since the outsourcing is the TWU putting out media releases and calling for full investigations about these kind of incidents and the travelling public deserves to be cynical about that,” he said.
“The TWU knows we fully investigate every safety incident because it’s something we take incredibly seriously.
“Their behaviour discredits the strong safety culture in Australian aviation by pointing fingers, getting the basic facts wrong and blowing things out of all proportion.”
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