Ruh roh, Lisa and Jess Origliasso AKA The Veronicas were booted from their Qantas flight to Brisbane today by the Australian Federal Police for reportedly refusing to follow the cabin crew’s instructions pre-take off. According to a comment left by the duo on an Instagram post, the situation appears to be a misunderstanding.
They were reportedly escorted from the plane at around 11AM, Sunday after the ordeal delayed the flight for almost an hour. The incident was allegedly due to the sisters’ refusal to put their luggage in the overhead storage for the duration of the flight, which was deemed a security risk.
A passenger known only as Greg, told The Courier Mail that “They were just in a belligerent, ‘I-refuse-to-do-what-I’m-told-because-I’m-important’ load of rubbish.”
“They’re not stars, they’re C-graders. I recognised them because my daughter liked them, but everyone else was just going, ‘What the hell?’,” he said.
“They were just being obstructive and not following instructions. The plane was getting pretty agitated.”
“They got marched out, and one of (the sisters) was filming the whole thing.”
Greg was flying via business class where he alleges that he overheard the cabin crew talking about removing the sisters from the flight.
In a now-deleted post to Instagram, a woman whose husband was on the flight posted a photo that appeared to show the duo being escorted off the aircraft by the police. In the photo’s caption, she said “They asked to have their bag put in overhead locker (nicely). Attendant said they can’t do that (true).”
The sisters are yet to release an official statement, however they did leave a comment on the aforementioned post talking about about their side of the story.
“We were so confused as to why asking for their names resulted in us being removed by 3 federal police,” they said. “Such an upsetting and embarrassing experience. We still can’t believe this happened, and that the flight was delayed for so long when we had no idea what was happening.”
A flight attendant pointed the sisters out to the manager who later gave them a “lecture” about company policy. The pair said they listened and then asked for the staff members’ names.
“At that point they refused to give us their names, and announced they were going to call security on us,” they said. We had no idea why.”
“We were so confused as to why asking for their names resulted in us being removed by 3 federal police.”
“Such an upsetting and embarrassing experience. We still can’t believe this happened, and that the flight was delayed for so long when we had no idea what was happening.”
Qantas confirmed via a statement that two people on flight QF516 – Sydney to Brisbane – were removed from the flight that was scheduled to leave at 10AM on Sunday. “After boarding, two passengers refused to follow crew instructions and were offloaded,” they said in the statement.
The flight was delayed over 45 minutes.
“We are still in shock and so upset.”
UPDATE 25/09/19: “This Is A Legal Matter, Not A Publicity Stunt”: The Veronicas’ Take To ‘The Project’ To Explain Qantas Flight Incident.
