Qantas flight attendant, who stopped over in Darwin, tests positive for COVID-19

A QANTAS flight attendant, who has tested positive for COVID-19, flew into Darwin from overseas before boarding a domestic flight to Sydney

A Qantas flight attendant, who travelled through Darwin, has tested positive for COVID-19. (File photo)

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A QANTAS flight attendant, who has tested positive for COVID-19, flew into Darwin from overseas before boarding a domestic flight to Sydney.

NSW chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant said the news of the case had only just come through. The exact movements of the flight attendant in Darwin are unknown but its understood he self isolated at a hotel before flying out on QF841 on Friday.

“We have had a case in a Qantas staff member who has returned from overseas and flown in through Darwin,” she said in a press conference on Wednesday

“The person has flown on a domestic flight. There were a number of precautions in place but there were a limited number of people on the flight,” she said.

“That was a Qantas flight departing from Darwin to Sydney on the 18th of December.”

Qantas medical director Ian Hosegood confirmed the flight attendant operated the repatriation flight from Paris on December 17.

It’s understood he then self-isolated in a hotel room in Darwin before flying out the following day.

Qantas domestic staff stay at the Hilton Hotel when in Darwin. It is not known whether the international staff also stay at there.

When returning to Sydney, the flight attendant self-isolated at home before having mild symptoms on Sunday, December 20. He is currently in government managed quarantine accommodation.

“I spoke to him last night and again this morning and thankfully he has only mild symptoms and is generally feeling well,” Dr Hosegood said.

“We are working with the Federal and New South Wales health departments to investigate how he contracted the virus and establish close contacts including any other crew members.

“He travelled as a passenger on a domestic flight from Darwin back to Sydney on Friday and has been in self-isolation at home since.

“This was in line with government approved protocols. Since then the protocols have changed and operating crew won’t be travelling on normal domestic flights after operating international repatriation flights.

“The crew member did not have symptoms when operating the repatriation flight or when travelling on the domestic sector, and was wearing a mask throughout both flights, so the risk of transmission is low. The domestic flight occurred more than 48 hours prior to symptom onset.

“We will be providing the flight manifest to NSW Health to assist with contact tracing passengers and crew on the domestic flight.

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“The hotel where our crew stayed at Charles De Gaulle Airport have confirmed that our crew remained in their rooms during their stay, and they were observed following the safety protocols. We are not aware of any compliance breaches.

“Despite operating well over 100 international flights back from COVID-hotspots- including Wuhan, the United States and Europe – this is the first Qantas crew member who has contracted the virus since late March.”

In October, IATA, the global body representing airlines, released data which showed there has only been 44 confirmed cases of inflight transmission globally across 1.2 billion travellers.

This means there is a one in 27 million chance of catching the virus on a flight.

Qantas has had one flight in March were inflight transmission occurred, which involved passengers from the Ruby Princess and other cruise ships.

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