And the early frontrunner for unlikeliest public feud of 2011 goes to Qantas Airlines crew members versus John Travolta, who invokes his decades of piloting experience in a new safety video screened before Qantas flights. What could possibly be the problem?
"This is your captain speaking," Travolta begins, innocuously enough, before things get a little... weird. "Well, maybe not today. But I can guarantee that the guys on the flight deck and the greater team care just as much about aircraft safety as I do."
Oh? You don't say. Despite the actor and Qantas "Goodwill Ambassador"'s otherwise cheerful demeanor and delivery, the video enraged some Qantas in-flight crew members, who vented over everything from the casting to the writing:
The three-minute demonstration video, played before take-off on every domestic and long-haul Qantas flight, has angered cabin crew who say a "real pilot" -- like Captain Richard de Crespigny, credited with saving 466 lives on the failed QF32 flight from Singapore - should front the message. [...]
One Qantas flight attendant, who did not wish to be named, described the video as "corny" and "tacky."
Flight attendants say they also have a problem with being repeatedly referred to as "the team " -- not flight attendants or cabin crew members -- in the video.
"We feel it's demeaning to be called 'the team,'" one said. "It makes us feel like we work at McDonald's."
Gosh! Everyone's a critic. Is it really that bad? You'd think James Franco phoned it in or something.
ยท Captain Travolta's video angers flight crew [The Telegraph via THR]