Qantas caught for ‘unacceptable act’ on the tarmac: ‘I would be furious’
Qantas staff have been criticized for leaving a pet crate and suitcases on the tarmac for as long as 30 minutes in the pouring rain.
A stunned passenger photographed the ‘unacceptable act’ at Sydney Airport last Friday and shared it online.
Sydney was hit by a heavy downpour at the time, with parts of NSW recording a month’s worth of rainfall in one day.
“Unfortunately, the weather was unavoidable, but this luggage was left in the open air in Sydney for thirty minutes and the animals for fifteen minutes – one with the rain in their eyes,” the outraged passenger wrote on Facebook.
Suitcases and a pet crate were left on trolleys on the tarmac next to a Qantas plane
No airline employees were visible in the photo shared, suggesting the pet was left unattended in the stressful situation
Social media users accused Qantas of neglect.
‘(I was on) the same flight, my luggage came home wet. It would be fun to come up with a cover under these circumstances,” they wrote.
“Those poor fur babies,” wrote another.
‘I would report this if I saw it after flying my little guy to and from New Zealand. I should have brought this to the attention of the ground staff as soon as possible.’
A third added: ‘I’m not impressed with the luggage but those dog baskets out there are absolutely unacceptable. “I would be furious if my son got stuck in a cage on the tarmac in a heavy rain, making an already stressful situation even worse.”
This is what a Qantas spokeswoman said Yahoo they are investigating the incident and that the airline ‘takes the safety and welfare of pets traveling with us very seriously’.
A Qantas spokeswoman said ‘the safety and welfare of pets traveling with us is taken very seriously’ (stock image)
“In weather conditions like last Friday, we have a policy of keeping pets undercover until the very last moment they need to leave the terminal to be loaded onto the plane,” she said.
The Qantas website says: ‘We know you care about your pet’s safety and comfort when flying as much as we do.’
Last year, Qantas was slammed by model Tayla Broad, the wife of Richmond defender Nathan Broad, when her French bulldog Charlie was not on his scheduled flight to Perth. Qantas apologized for the delay.