Qantas volunteers to crew rescue flight from Wuhan in China

Crew on the flight to Darwin will be provided with face masks and individual hand sanitiser dispensers.

Crew on the flight will be given face masks and individual hand sanitiser dispensers.

About 50 Qantas flight attendants have volunteered to crew the rescue flight from Wuhan in China, where hundreds of Australians are stranded after transport out of the city was banned due to the coronavirus outbreak.

A meeting on Thursday between the Flight Attendants Association of Australia and Qantas reached agreement, after assurances the risk of contracting coronavirus was low.

FAAA national secretary Teri O’Toole said medical officers and Australian government officials would also be on board the flight to Darwin, with crew to be provided with face masks and individual hand sanitiser dispensers.

“We’ve been assured the risk of contracting coronavirus is quite low unless you’re in close face-to-face proximity with an infected person for at least 15-minutes,” Ms O’Toole said.

“We are satisfied our members will be safe and they have shown great willingness to take part in the flight.”

She said one volunteer was a Vietnamese refugee to Australia who wanted to help others.

The FAAA had also sought and received assurances from Qantas that cabin crew on flights to and from China were not at risk of contracting coronavirus.

“What we are finding is that members are running into problems with schools, after the NSW education department ordered anyone who had been to China be isolated for two weeks and not attend,” Ms O’Toole said.

“This is being applied to the children of flight attendants who’ve worked on services to China, and in one case the partner of a flight attendant has been told to stay home from work.”

Qantas remained committed to operating flights into Shanghai and Beijing while the demand existed, unless the federal government issued orders to stop.

A spokesman said they were in close contact with the Department of Health and were carefully monitoring the situation.

The Australian and International Pilots Association has also confirmed it’s satisfied members are not at risk on flights into China, and they remain happy to operate those services.