An Australian union has blasted one of the country’s leading charter carriers after it claims flight attendants on a four-hour sports charter flight for an Australian Football League team were forced to scoop human waste out of the toilets after they stopped working.
And while flight attendants were scooping waste from inside the toilet bowl, it’s been alleged that passengers were told to urinate directly into wash basins.
The Embraer E190 regional jet had been chartered from National Jet Express by the Fremantle Dockers to get them from Launceston in Tasmania to Perth on Sunday, but the plane reportedly ran out of running water just 30 minutes into the flight.
According to the Transport Workers Union (TWU) of Australia, with capacity for 104 passengers, human waste quickly started to build up in the two lavatories onboard the plane because they wouldn’t flush.
“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 blasted.
“This unacceptable scenario also led to passengers being compelled to use basins for urination, highlighting a severe breach of basic hygiene standards,” a statement from the union continued.
National Jet Express started life in 1990 serving Australia’s booming mining industry, providing so-called ‘fly-in, fly-out’ to get workers to and from remote mining sites across Australia’s mammoth expanse.
The airline was operates charters and it was these businesses that was bought by Australia’s Rex Regional Express in 2022.
“This situation is utterly unacceptable and demonstrates a glaring neglect of duty of care towards both our members and the passengers they serve,” commented Tim Dawson, the Western Australian state secretary of the TWU.
“Our cabin crew members should not be subjected to such hazardous working conditions, and passengers should not have to endure such distressing experiences,” Dawson continued.
The airline says it is ‘aware’ of a situation on Sunday’s charter flight and has opened an investigation. A spokesperson added that the airline would “ensure any failings are addressed immediately”.
“Crew and passenger welfare is of the utmost importance and as such we are taking this matter very seriously,” a statement from the carrier continued.
Home health aides, nurse’s aides, and doctors scoop up poop with their gloved hands, too, but no union complaints and no extra pay.
And so do the aircraft cleaners after the flight when the flight attendants let people keep using a blocked up lav. Or my favorite: someone vomits in the sink so the F/A locks the lav and notes it out of service. So it sits all night long until the next morning when MX wakes up the plane and goes “Oh, this isn’t OOS….” and oh boy…