The Veronicas Are ‘Pursuing Legal Action’ After Police Escorted Them Off A Flight
"Such an upsetting and embarrassing experience."
Australian pop royalty The Veronicas were escorted off a domestic Qantas flight by three federal police this weekend, and have subsequently responded on social media, claiming they were unreasonably removed.
As reported by AAP (via The Guardian), The Veronicas boarded QF516 from Sydney to Brisbane on Sunday morning, with Qantas confirming that two passengers were “offloaded” after refusing to follow cabin crew instructions.
The duo have addressed the incident, saying that cabin staff ‘escalated’ an issue over their carry-on baggage ‘without explanation’.
“The incident that occurred on Qantas flight 516 today was incredibly intimidating and confusing,” they wrote in a message shared across their social media channels. “The details reported are false and in conflict with video recorded during this event, and witness accounts from the flight.”
As per an earlier and now-deleted (but fan-archived) Instagram post, the sisters explained their view of events.
“We actually already had our bag up in the overhead,” they wrote. “The female flight attendant wanted Lisa’s bag spun around. Lisa asked the attendant if she could help assist her, because she couldn’t reach it (we’re only 5″1). The attendant said it was against company policy. And a lovely man behind us helped instead.”
“Then right before take off, the flight attendant bought over the manager and pointed us out. He proceeded to lecture us about company policy.”
The duo then claim they asked for the staff members’ names, which they weren’t given, and they were then told that security would be called.
“We were so confused as tho why asking for their named resulted in us being removed by 3 federal police,” they wrote. “Such an upsetting and embarrassing experience. We still can’t believe this happened.”
The Veronicas have shared three messages from people claiming to be on the flight, which all corroborate their account.
— THE VERONICAS (@TheVeronicas) September 22, 2019
@TheVeronicas I was also on QF516,
And believe Qantas completely overreacted. I was a few rows back and witnessed the whole incident. Their decison was an overreach and affected every person on that flight— Daman (@DamanCole) September 22, 2019
I was actually on this flight and there was nothing belligerent about the sisters. The QANTAS crew decided they wanted to flex their muscles & were totally over the top. Funny thing is while they were explaining “Policy” other members of the crew were moving other peoples bags
— Matt Day (@idiomatically) September 22, 2019
A Qantas spokesperson has made a statement to the ABC saying that the pair were removed for being disruptive, and police were called after they refused to disembark. The flight was delayed 45 minutes, and the duo caught a later plane to Brisbane.
The Veronicas have said they are “pursuing legal action” regarding the incident and subsequent media reporting, and will not comment further for now.