Firearms on baggage carousels and bags crushed: internal memos reveal Qantas ground safety incidents

Qantas has hit out at the transport union for releasing internal safety memos written by managers at Swissport, which does the baggage handling for the airline company. Photograph: William West/EPA

Staff loading Qantas flights have been injured, a staircase rolled away from a plane while the cabin door was open, baggage containers have been damaged and firearms have been left unattended on carousels, according to internal memos released by the Transport Workers’ Union.

The safety memos, which date from between January and July this year, were written by managers at Swissport, which took over baggage handling for Qantas in December after the airline sacked 2,000 workers in an outsourcing move the federal court found was illegal. Qantas has consistently denied it did anything unlawful and is appealing the decision.