For any pilot who was involved in the 1989 debacle, (or for 77% of them, at least), there would be a dreadful feeling of déjà vu as he (or she) read the earnest cries of “don’t do it!” from those appealing for unity or to the better natures and morality of those who are being asked to fill in for those three days next week.
Sadly, I feel that there will be enough who, just like some now QF did pilots all those years ago, will be able to rationalise within their own minds that taking the one day of training(!) and the three days work is the “right” thing to do.
In my humble opinion, appealing to people’s better natures will get you nowhere in a situation like this, (a lesson I learnt to my cost some 13.5 years ago). What may have more effect is a gentle reminder of just how “right” that decision might seem some months later as one of a very busy 16 member crew, the other 15 of whom have all had considerably more than one day’s training. Unlike the pilots, it’s very unlikely that the stand-in crew will be left holding the fort when this is resolved, (however it is resolved).
On to what should be a very serious note, how in the world can CASA (or whatever their name is this week) allow Qantas to even consider manning (“person-ing”) their flights with cabin crews with only one day’s training? Along the same argument, if there’s a Qantas captain out there who is willing to fly with a cc with the level of training these fill in crew will allegedly have, it ain’t the Qantas it once was…
But it would seem from other indicators that that’s the case already.