The Veronicas, will.i.am: Qantas crew don’t deserve to be abused simply for doing their job
These directions are enshrined in law and such requirements as stowing tray tables, seats upright, putting away laptops and so on are part of the legal requirement for takeoff and landing.
That a problem occurred last weekend with Black Eyed Peas rapper will.i.am not initially obeying the flight attendant’s request to stow his laptop for landing was fortunate for him only insofar as this was not a flight in the US.
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For the matter to be referred to the senior cabin crew member, who then informed the captain, means he crossed the line somehow and a request by the captain for the Australian Federal Police to meet the aircraft is a serious matter.
He was lucky the AFP cut him some slack and treated it as a misunderstanding for which an Australian would not have been treated so leniently.
In the US, he would have been escorted off the aircraft in handcuffs and in Dubai probably would still be in a cell. Same goes for Australian pop stars The Veronicas who were kicked off a Qantas flight by AFP officers after allegedly refusing to properly stow their luggage in the overhead compartments in September.
In the post-September 11, 2001 era with the pre-boarding trauma of security, passengers are often stressed, and I admire cabin crew who deal with hundreds of passengers daily.
The pilots have it easy in this regard, although one time on an Airbus flight out of Tehran, I declined to assist my purser, when she had lost control of the seating arrangements in business class after a mullah decided to enforce sharia such that no woman could sit next to a man not her relative. In such a situation, religious matters take precedence.
What is not acceptable is that this “celebrity” used a despicable slur of racism against the flight attendant to his millions of followers leading to Qantas being trolled online as “the white supremacist airline”. This impugns Australia as well.
My opinion is that this must not be allowed to stand.
Qantas should take legal action to have the slur retracted and an apology issued to both the flight attendant and Qantas.
I’m currently on a flight from Brisbane to Sydney.
— will.i.am (@iamwill) November 16, 2019
I’m sorry to say me and my group have experienced they worse service due to a overly aggressive flight attendant...
I don’t want to believe she racist.
But she has clearly aimed all her frustrations only at the people of colour
Failure to do so should involve the Civil Aviation Safety Authority and the federal Transport Minister so that the Black Eyed Peas can’t receive visas to travel to Australia.
Why was this band member travelling on an airline anyway? Real celebrities travel on corporate jets where they can conduct themselves, within certain limits, how they wish.
Most of the corporate jet charters I have been on in the past 10 years have been with film stars who are very pleasant and rock stars the opposite.
Byron Bailey is a former RAAF fighter jet pilot and flew B777s as an airline captain.
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The primary duty of cabin crew is the safety of passengers. Qantas flight attendants are probably the most professional, qualified and experienced of any airline. They take their responsibility seriously and they are not required to smile when directing passengers to obey lawful directions which passengers are well informed that they must obey.