Cabin crew were forced to scoop human waste out of onboard toilets and other passengers were left to urinate directly into basins, a union says, after a charter flight carrying an AFL team ran out of water, making flushing impossible.
The National Jet Express (NJE) plane was chartered by the Fremantle Dockers to fly the team to Perth after their loss to Hawthorn in the Tasmanian city of Launceston on Saturday. It reportedly ran out of water just 30 minutes into the four-hour flight.
The lack of water rendered the two bathrooms onboard the 104-seater Embraer E190 non-functional, posing “an unsanitary and unsafe environment for both cabin crew and passengers”, according to the Transport Workers Union (TWU), which represents the airline’s crew.
The TWU expressed its “deep concern and outrage” over the incident.
“This incident posed a significant health and safety risk as cabin crew were reportedly forced to manage the situation by manually scooping toilet waste into basins,” the TWU said.
“This unacceptable scenario also led to passengers being compelled to use basins for urination, highlighting a severe breach of basic hygiene standards,” the union said.
Tim Dawson, the Western Australian state secretary of the TWU, said “this situation is utterly unacceptable and demonstrates a glaring neglect of duty of care towards both our members and the passengers they serve”.
“Our cabin crew members should not be subjected to such hazardous working conditions, and passengers should not have to endure such distressing experiences,” Dawson said.
The TWU lodged its concerns with NJE, which has begun an investigation of the incident.
“NJE is aware of the situation on board a Launceston to Perth charter flight recently and is conducting a thorough investigation into the incident to ensure any failings are addressed immediately,” the airline, which is a subsidiary of Rex Airlines, said in a statement provided to Guardian Australia.
“Crew and passenger welfare is of the utmost importance and as such we are taking this matter very seriously,” the statement said.
Hawthorn, a Melbourne-based club, has a longstanding agreement with the Tasmanian government to play four home matches each year in Launceston.
Teams usually travel on Virgin Australia flights organised by the AFL. However no such scheduled flight was available between Perth and Launceston that suited Fremantle, so the AFL chartered a flight. The competition is now also investigating the incident.
Joe Brierty, Fremantle’s executive general manager of football, said that about an hour into the flight, passengers were notified of the issue with the planes water and septic tanks.
“They informed us that the tanks were full. Our players could still use the toilets but obviously they were filling up along the flight. It led to the [airline] staff [having to] do some things to make sure we could manage the entire flight home,” he said.
“It wasn’t appropriate … but it was managed in the best way it possibly could have,” he said.
Brierty said it was preferable for the club to bear with the conditions instead of diverting the flight and adding to their travel time.
“Obviously, from a health and safety perspective. It wasn’t great. But in terms of getting home quickly, and our players and staff being comfortable, they were comfortable enough,” Brierty said.
Fremantle defender Luke Ryan appeared unfazed by the saga.
“It was a pretty nice flight on the way there and on the way back, I was asleep pretty much the whole time and dehydrated, so I didn’t need to go,” Ryan said.
