Unruly Aussie Football Team Kicked Off Plane

An Australian Rules football team was ordered off a Qantas airliner on Thursday because of unruly behavior during a trans-Pacific flight from Melbourne, an airline official said.

“There was loutish behavior in the terminal (during a stopover at Nadi, Fiji), where they commandeered wheelchairs and raced each other,” Ken Boys, Qantas media relations manager, said from the airline’s headquarters in Sydney. “This schoolboy behavior continued on the aircraft, where they broke at least 12 seatbacks and threw utensils and food at each other.”

Simon Beasley, a 29-year-old full forward and the Bulldogs’ leading scorer, said: “A couple of players were intoxicated, but . . . it’s been all blown out of proportion by Qantas. They have made an example of our football club. We’ve been a scapegoat.

According to Boys, the players pulled a City of Perth coat of arms emblem from the wall and tore off a female flight attendant’s uniform jacket.

“They were harassing the crew and began throwing glasses and full trays of food at each other,” Boys said. “At this stage, all other passengers were moved out of that section of the aircraft. . . . On the bright side, nobody was injured.”

Boys said 38 members of the traveling party of the Footscray team, which represents an industrial section of West Melbourne, were grounded at Honolulu International Airport when the captain refused to carry them on to Los Angeles.

Beasley said 19 members of the group of 30 players and eight officials chose to continue aboard other carriers, despite having to pay higher fares, rather than wait for the next Qantas flight on Saturday.