A group of Aboriginal men is suing Qantas airline after they were thrown off of a flight.
Eight Aboriginal men were on their way home from a federally funded Indigenous leadership program in Cairns, yet Michael Edwards of Kemspey, and seven other men were thrown off a Qantas flight before it left Sydney three years ago.
Edwards cannot seem to get the ordeal out of his head. He spoke to ABC about what happened..
"I think we were discriminated against by Qantas because there was only eight Aboriginal people on the plane," he said.
Edwards and the seven other men are suing Qantas for damages, saying that the airline falsely imprisoned them. Many of the men, like Edwards, had never left Kempsey before and it was the first time on a plane. However soon after they boarded the flight, security guards were called to remove them.
"They weren't doing nothing. Not a thing at all. Just had the headphones in just listening to a bit of music just bopping, that's all," he said.
After being removed, the men were taken to a bus that was parked on the tarmac and they were locked in the vehicle for an hour and a half. The men were told that they couldn't leave, even to go to the bathroom.
"We were on the bus for an hour, two hours, like little dogs we was, they just had us like dogs on a bus," Craig Edwards, one of the other men told ABC.
The men were then allegedly escorted to the terminal by Federal Police and were told that they would have to catch a flight the next morning. The men claim that they were humiliated over the ordeal.
"People were looking at us. Giggling and you know. I felt like a criminal, like I'd done something really bad and we did nothing wrong," Michael Edwards said.
Edwards claims that they were told that they wouldn't be able to fly in a group. Instead they were told to fly in pairs, on separate flights, two hours apart. The men chose another option and decided to hire a car to drive back to Kempsey. Due to the long trip, Craig Edwards missed his first grandchild being born.
"I hate Qantas. I don't think I will ever fly with them. Like I said I wanted to go to more programs but I can't now because I won't get on a plane," he said.
However Qantas has a different outlook on the incident.
According to flight attendant, Kelly Kalimnios, the men were acting loud and rowdy. She claims that one of the men even told her,"F*** off you f****** white trash." She said they ignored he and refused to calm down.
Kalimnios told her captain, "I'm feeling uncomfortable and threatened. They will have to get off or I'm getting off."
Edwards denies these claims and federal independent MP Rob Oakeshott backed it up.
"From everything I saw they were behaving no different to anyone else who is a bit excited about catching a plane," Oakeshott said.
"It was an extremely heavy-handed response to some actions which, from where I was sitting and where my chief of staff was sitting, we thought was certainly over the top.
"I think that would be the reaction of most people that were on the flight."
The case will be heard in Sydney in August.
"Broadly speaking, Qantas has a zero-tolerance policy towards behaviour it believes could compromise the safety of anyone on our aircraft," a statement from the airline read. "This policy is applied equally to all passengers."
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