It appears that Australian Olympians have lived up to the reputation we usually only see with Australian tourists in Bali and Thailand as Japan Airlines just lodged a formal complaint about the athletes drunken escapades on board.
Japan Airlines notified the International Olympic Committee (IOC) about the incident which involved excessive drinking, refusing to wear masks, ignoring cabin crew, stealing alcohol from the galley and one incident of an athlete vomiting in a toilet.
Stereotypes aren’t exactly a nice thing to carry but confirming them is probably worse especially for athletes representing the country on an international stage such as the Olympic Games this year.
According to media reports there were 49 Australian athletes from nine sports on the flight, which landed in Sydney on Friday. The majority of Olympians accused of bad behavior came from the rugby and football teams.
Reuters reported about it this morning (see here).
The Australian Olympic Committee will leave it to the country’s rugby and football federations to investigate and punish the “unacceptable” drunken behaviour of players on a flight home from Tokyo, Chef de Mission Ian Chesterman said on Wednesday.
Chesterman said he was “deeply disappointed” by the incidents on Thursday’s Japan Airlines (JAL) flight, which involved excessive drinking, refusing to wear masks, ignoring cabin crew and one incident of an athlete vomiting in a toilet.
“This behaviour is clearly unacceptable and does not meet the standards set by this team,” he told a news conference. …
There were 49 athletes from nine sports on the flight, which landed in Sydney on Friday. A JAL spokesperson said the airline was “still investigating” the incidents.
Chesterman said the AOC had been informed by JAL of the misbehaviour but the airline had stopped short of making a formal complaint and would continue to ferry Australian athletes back to Australia.
He strongly suggested the heaviest sanction available to the AOC – banning the guilty parties from representing Australia at future Games – would not be utilised. …
The misbehaviour on the JAL flight followed incidents in which Australian rugby players and rowers damaged rooms in the Athletes Village while celebrating the end of their competitions. The rowers had apologised, Chesterman said.
“I think there’s appropriate ways to release the unquestionable stresses and tensions of the Olympic campaign,” he said.
“But it’s completely inappropriate to behave in a way that causes inconvenience to other people. A few people are damaging the reputation of a very strong team.”
Something tells me would this behavior have occurred on a Qantas flight these people would have been put in their place and the aircraft met by Border Force/AFP upon arrival in Sydney. JAL was way too lenient in this situation.
Bits of the press conference where these remarks were made can be seen here:
The Kyodo News added some more details that weren’t included in the Reuters article:
According to the report, other passengers on the flight said some of the players refused to follow instructions by airline staff to sit down and allegedly raided alcohol stored in the galley of the plane, despite pleas by the airline staff not to do so. In addition, one passenger reported that several athletes began vomiting, and one of the plane’s nearby toilets was “wasted.”
“Obviously, they weren’t wearing their masks as they were drinking all the time,” one passenger told the tabloid.
Japan Airlines confirmed that a written complaint has been sent to the Australian Olympic Committee, telling Kyodo News on Wednesday, “As they are traveling as athletes representing their country, we hope they take heed of that fact and behave as such.”
These are serious, embarrassing allegations which aren’t even disputed at this point. There have also been similar news reports about some New Zealand based athletes behaving rather badly on their flight home although not with degree of severity as on the JAL Sydney flight.
Conclusion
Australian Rugby and Football players engaged in quite embarrassing, not to say criminal behavior on their flight from Tokyo to Sydney last week. This included refusal to follow cabin crew instructions, raiding the aircraft galley and helping themselves to alcohol and getting severely drunk.
Any regular passengers would have certainly been arrested upon arrival so one has to wonder why there are exceptions being made for people who are playing sports. Seems like a two tier system going on here. These athletes might face consequences from their sports associations for their behavior but that certainly doesn’t deal with the illegal conduct on the flight.
Sounds like typical day on the beach in Bali or Thailand. Aussies drunk as skunks acting a fool.
I do realize some may take offense to these statements and that stereotypes can be harmful—but, unfortunately, I have seen very similar situations. e.g., I was vacationing in Niseko (Japan) a few winters ago, and the entire town was full of drunken Aussies and the Chinese, frequently harassing the locals—and each other. My family and I, as Americans, felt very uncomfortable, and we fled to Sapporo ahead of schedule, cutting our Niseko vacay short.
Would they have preferred he vomited at his seat?
Haha! Valid point!
They don’t even have to quarantine in compulsory hotels, unlike anyone else returning to Australia and pay a fortune. These athletes representing the AO are paid, have everything covered for, training, equipment, flights and expenses covered by Funding, which is derived from income distributions from the Australian Olympic Foundation, grants from the IOC, known as Olympic Solidarity, grants from the Organising Committees for the Olympic Games (OCOGs), sponsorship, licensing and fundraising for Olympic Teams by the AOC, State/Territory Olympic Councils and the Olympic Team Appeal Committees. The later four should certainly be applying pressure and have tighter contractual agreements with the athletes for behavior and consequences for bad behavior.
These athletes are in quarantine for 14 days like everyone else.
Notorious Aussies from Down Under again!
Wow, it must have been TRULY horrendous for JAL to have taken this unusual action (for them, that is). I have noticed previously in Japan that, at times, Japanese customer service is so superior that some non-Japanese customers confuse “quality customer service” with “anything goes.”
I hope AOC will handle this case properly—w/o further fueling into the stereotypes some of us seem to have about how their fellow citizens act overseas, especially in Asia…
The Olyroos and rugby union teams did not even win medals. Throw the book at them!
Yeah well said .. they should have copped a serve over that! They are in the Darwin Quarantine facility from what I understand .. perhaps push them out in the back paddock for a couple of days as punishment.
I agree with all here .. this is bloody embarassing for the country .. bunch of Wallies .. and yes if this was on Qantas the repercussions would have been more severe .. JAL I wish came down harder. Hoping some of the sporting codes come down harder than they have thus far. Tarnishes the image of the team.
Isn’t interfering with a flight crew a crime? It is in the US,thankfully,as the number has reached new highs.