Sydney Airport flight bungle 'not a Ruby Princess' rerun, says Jetstar

The boss of Jetstar says the airline's bungling of health procedures that saw passengers from Victoria leave Sydney Airport without going through COVID-19 screening is not a rerun of the Ruby Princess fiasco because all passengers were screened before they departed Melbourne. NSW Health authorities blamed Jetstar for allowing 137 passengers to disembark from flight JQ520 at 6.40pm on Tuesday before health teams had arrived at the gate to conduct screening. Authorities tracked down and screened 89 passengers in the terminal but 48 people left the airport without being screened in a major breach of health protocols. The last five passengers had been tracked down and were being tested on Thursday, NSW Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant said. Jetstar CE Gareth Evans said Thursday health authorities shared some of the blame for not being there when the plane arrived. “The process broke down,” he said. “NSW Health should have been there, they weren’t; we should have held the plane, we didn't. We have to now work with other stakeholders to make sure this doesn’t happen again.” Evans said it was a “completely different set of circumstances” to the Ruby Princess because all passengers had undergone a temperature check, completed a health questionnaire, and an identity check before boarding the plane in Melbourne. “It’s the same screening process - what was happening in Sydney was a double check,” he said.<br/>