Qantas CEO Alan Joyce has pie shoved in face

Alan Joyce reflects on his encounter with a lemon meringue pie as police probe how and why the Qantas boss was attacked | WATCH

Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce has been attacked by a man who shoved a cream pie in his face while he was speaking at a WA business event.

Mr Joyce had just begun speaking at a business breakfast in Perth, where he was spruiking the airline’s recently announced direct flights to London, when a man appeared behind him on stage with a pie. The elderly man grabbed Mr Joyce and pushed the pie in his face before walking off stage.

Speaking to reporters after the incident, Mr Joyce said he had been on the receiving end of protests and stunts during his time at Qantas but had never experienced something quite like today’s series of events.

“When you’ve been CEO of an airline for nine years, there’s a lot of things that have happened over that period of time,” Mr Joyce said. “This is different, this is certainly an unusual event but things like this have happened in the past.”

Pie thrown in face of @Qantas chief Alan Joyce while in Perth. https://t.co/zu6xpPhG5D #ausbiz #7News pic.twitter.com/FhcURRE9Rk

— 7 News Sydney (@7NewsSydney) May 9, 2017

Mr Joyce has courted controversy during his time at the airline, firstly for his decision to ground the entire Qantas fleet in the face of industrial action and, more recently, for his strong advocacy for marriage equality.

Asked if his public position on social issues may have made him a target, Mr Joyce said he would leave it for police to investigate.

“We’re going into pure speculation here and I think the police need to investigate this. This is in the hands of police and we should let them do their investigation,” he said.

Shares in Qantas are currently trading near their highest level in nine years.

Mr Joyce joked that he hadn’t had a chance to taste the pie. “It was mostly on my glasses,” he said. “My issue is I need a good drycleaner before I leave Perth so if you have one please recommend it.”

The West Australian’s business editor Ben Harvey told Perth’s Radio 6PR: “It was a very bizarre situation ... it appeared to be a lemon meringue pie.

“It seems to be he was making some sort of political statement but we don’t know what that statement is.”

He said the Qantas CEO was calm throughout the incident.

“He (Joyce) dealt with it very very well. For a man that’s cool under pressure he proved that very much today.

“He looked at everyone and very calmly said ‘well, I’m not sure what that’s all about, but I’m going to have to get cleaned up’.

“He walked off stage and then returned a few minutes later to a warm applause and continued his speech.”

The man was grabbed by security: police confirmed they had a person in custody in relation to the incident.

With AAP