Qantas flight crew care criticised after turbulence injuries
Qantas has vowed to strengthen inflight safety procedures after severe turbulence injured three cabin crew.
The incident happened on a descent into Brisbane Airport earlier this month.
An aircraft experienced turbulence, with three cabin crew injured. One suffered a broken ankle.
An ATSB report into the incident was released this week.
“The ATSB found that the captain did not inform the cabin crew about the expected turbulence during descent, likely due to not being aware of its severity,” the ATSB said.
The report said there was then a communication breakdown with the pilot landing the plane with some crew members and passengers not wearing seatbelts.
“Two cabin crew and two passengers remained unrestrained in the rear galley to assist the seriously injured crew member.”
A crew member worked on subsequent flights with concussion which had not been diagnosed.
The ATSB crticised Qantas’ “lack of procedure to ensure cabin crew fitness was assessed after a significant injury”.
Qantas said it would revamp its medical assessments processes.
“Following an internal investigation, we promptly expanded our post-incident medical assessment processes, ensuring all crew on-board a flight are assessed following an incident, regardless of visible impact,” a Qantas spokesperson said.
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Editor for TravelMole North America and Asia pacific regions. Ray is a highly experienced (15+ years) skilled journalist and editor predominantly in travel, hospitality and lifestyle working with a huge number of major market-leading brands. He has also cover in-depth news, interviews and features in general business, finance, tech and geopolitical issues for a select few major news outlets and publishers.
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