By Sharon Petersen
Published Thu Dec 04 2025
As someone whose role revolves around airline safety and in-flight product, I can’t help but notice the details that most passengers overlook, whether I’m traveling alone or with my family.
Qantas has long been recognized as one of the world’s safest airlines, earning the AirlineRatings World’s Safest Airline award multiple times and consistently ranking in the top five. But safety isn’t just about awards—it’s in the little things that happen on every flight to ensure that an incident doesn’t become an accident.
On a recent A330 flight, I was seated deep in economy near a lady with limited mobility. During pre-departure checks, a minor incident with a leaking water bottle arose. The crew member closest to us had to make this his priority at that time, leaving his pre-flight checks. I assumed that once the crew dealt with it, our row’s checks would be skipped, as the passenger next to me and I were literally the last two passengers to be checked in that section.
But that didn’t happen. Even after running up and down the cabin to retrieve wipes and manage the spill, the crew member returned, completed our pre-flight checks, and even caught my ‘planted’ charging cord in the in-seat power, asking me to remove it.
Most passengers would never notice these things, but for someone who lives and breathes aviation safety, these actions matter. They may seem routine, but they make all the difference if something rare were to happen.
Why do we share stories like this?
This story may seem mundane to most, but safety and dedication to it should be celebrated. Our goal here is simple: to help guide travelers toward the safest and best-value flight every time. Stories like this not only applaud those doing their jobs well, but they may also be noticed by another commercial safety officer elsewhere, serving as a reminder that could, one day, make all the difference.
