Qantas trainee raises OHS concerns

A trainee flight attendant has accused Qantas of sacking her for complaining about inadequate counselling after a mid-air emergency.

Jessie Holgersson, 25, watched in horror as the engine outside her window on a Boeing 747-400 flight suffered an explosive engine blowout last month.

Flames burst from the engine shortly after take-off, forcing QF6 to make an emergency landing in Singapore just a day after the engine on a Qantas A380 had blown apart mid-flight.

Despite the seriousness of the incident, which required passengers to go into the brace position, Ms Holgersson complained that no counselling was provided until 9pm the following day.

“I was terrified when I realised there was a problem. It was a scary moment,” she said. “Seeing flames out the window is not something you expect on your second training flight, but I stayed calm, I reassured passengers, I yelled out my commands, I did everything by the textbook.”

Once safely back in Sydney she spoke to the Qantas cabin crew manager, saying she felt staff had been neglected immediately after the incident.

A week later she was called up by Julia Ross Limited, a recruiting firm Qantas uses to hire and train cabin crew for its UK division, and told they’d decided not to continue with her employment.

“If I’d run around screaming, sure, fire me – but I didn’t,” said Ms Holgersson, who quit a well-paying job, cancelled her lease, sold her belongings and finalised plans to move to London.

Solicitor Sian Ryan, from Turner Freeman Lawyers, is taking the case to Fair Work Australia next week claiming that Ms Holgersson was adversely treated by Qantas and Julia Ross for exercising her workplace right to complain about the failure to address a health and safety issue.

“Jessica is a young woman who due to bad fortune ended up in a terrible situation in the early days of a new job,” Ms Ryan said.

“We will be arguing the reason her employment didn’t go ahead was because she raised matters relating to the QF6 incident.”

A Qantas spokeswoman denied the allegations yesterday: “Based on her performance and behaviours during the training phase, the decision was made not to offer her employment.”

But a report from Qantas supervisor Brian Lynch, who was on the plane, applauded Ms Holgersson for doing a “fantastic job” during the emergency – and warned it would be a “great shame” if Qantas lost her. He wrote: “Would love Jessica to be in my team again one day.”