Qantas staff angry at tacky John Travolta safety video

An in-flight safety video featuring John Travolta has angered Qantas employees who think it is tacky and demeans them. The cheesy three-minute video, shown before take-off, has the actor smiling into the camera and saying: "This is your captain speaking - well, maybe not today."

Travolta is, of course, a pilot as well as being a Hollywood actor and Scientologist. He has his own Boeing 707 with Qantas livery - and is hired by the airline as "an ambassador".

On the video, he tells passengers: "I can guarantee that the guys on the flight deck and the team care just as much about aircraft safety as I do. I've been flying over 40 years as a pilot and I can tell you there's no one I'd rather have at the controls than a Qantas pilot."

Qantas staff have taken to online forums to express their dismay, according to the Sydney Sunday Telegraph, calling the video "corny" and "tacky".

One Qantas employee said: "The whole thing seems to make the safety message seem trite." While another objected to cabin crew being described as "the team", saying it made them feel like McDonalds employees.

Qantas dismissed the objection, describing the video as "really engaging".

It's fairly obvious why Qantas has wheeled out its star ambassador to talk to it s passengers about safety. The airline has suffered a series of safety scares which have been widely reported in the Australian media.

Then came last November's engine explosion on a Qantas A380. Nobody was hurt in the incident, but it brought Qantas' safety problems to a global audience.

However, Qantas employees have suggested that maybe Captain Richard de Crespigny the pilot who brought that stricken A380 safely back to earth would have been a better choice than 'Captain' Travolta.

"Who better than the genuine aviation professionals who saved QF32?" asked one Qantas staff member. ·