With unseasonal rain bathing the region this week, almost all flights were cancelled at all Whitsunday airports, but none more high-profile than Monday night’s Jetstar Australia flight JQ 849 from Hamilton Island.
Over 150 people were left stranded in Airlie Beach after an engineering issue cancelled the flight, leaving its passengers without accommodation during one of the region’s busiest times of year. Whitsunday residents took it upon themselves to help out, opening their homes and businesses to get the marooned holidaymakers out of the rain and cold, and get them fed.
An Impromptu Whitsunday Storm Shelter
Jetstar Flight JQ 849’s cancellation at the hands of an engineering issue left over 130 people stuck in Airlie Beach with nowhere to stay on Monday night.
The flight was set to take off from Hamilton Island before Jetstar technicians determined a technical fault would leave the plain non-airworthy.
Ferried back to Airlie Beach at the request of Jetstar, the passengers arrived at Port of Airlie unannounced, with no accommodation booked and no availability due to school holidays filling both the mainland and Hamilton Island.
A spokesperson for Hamilton Island said they were “dismayed” at the cancellation.
“Passengers were left without alternative travel arrangements or accommodation at the Port of Airlie,” the spokesperson said.
“Hamilton Island sends its heartfelt thoughts to all the guests affected”
The spokesperson said Jetstar opted to send the passengers to the mainland, “where alternative accommodation or travel arrangements was to be arranged” by Jetstar.
But alternative accommodation didn’t come from Jetstar, it came from Whitsunday residents and Whitsunday Councillor Jan Clifford.
Councillor Clifford swooped in to organise free bus transfers onboard Whitsunday Transit from Port of Airlie to Whitsunday PCYC.
PCYC Branch Manager and Police Sergeant Billy Li stayed overnight at the PCYC alongside his unexpected guests and said Cr Clifford called him to open the doors to “give people somewhere to sleep.”
“There was plenty of people here, both people turning up from town to pick up folks and give them a place to stay. There was Fish D’vine and Dominos bringing free food,” Sergeant Li said.
“It ended up with only about 20 people left here to stay overnight - that’s how many people opened their homes.”
Fish D’vine owner Kevin Collins said they were glad to provide the food and “turn a disaster into an adventure.”
Councillor Clifford said that Dominoes, Fish D’vine and the PCYC – as well as the people of town who put up the passengers – were “the real heroes”.
“Whitsunday Transit did a wonderful job and other people around the place did a wonderful job, I’m so proud of this town,” she said.
“If it could possibly go wrong, it did, and the way everyone around town rallied, that’s why I love this town.”
Cr Clifford said she was hoping to send a certificate of appreciation to everyone that helped.
Red Cat Adventure owner Asher Telford was on Hamilton with his parents, Shirley and Terry, who were passengers on the cancelled flight.
He said they spent hours ferrying people to local accommodation, as well as organising pickups.
“That’s why we live here. It’s the people that make the place,” he said.
Whitsunday Transit operations manager Edward Deakes, Fish D’vine CEO Grant Wilson, Police Sergeant Billy Li, and Asher Telford
The Whitsunday PCYC became a home for stranded Jetstar passengers thanks to the hospitality of locals
Local businesses like dominoes donated upwards of forty pizzas for free to the hungry group
