The ultimate gentle giants?
The Fijian Sevens rugby union team stepped in to help a sick passenger and serve food on a flight, after attendants were forced to deal with an onboard medical emergency.
The players were onboard a flight from Brisbane to Fiji’s capital Nadi on Thursday when a fellow passenger suffered a serious health scare another passenger Ryan Fee told Daily Mail Australia.
The woman fell sick about 45 minutes into the Virgin Australia flight and the team quickly rushed to her aid. Fee, from Brisbane, said how the team’s doctor and coach assisted the woman, whilst players got up and served food to other passengers to help out.
Team mates then took away the trays from the entire plane once everyone finished their meals and took rubbish bags around to clean-up. According to Fee, the flight attendants were understandably stressed out by the whole ordeal.
Speaking to Daily Mail Australia, he said:
I don’t want to talk foully of them (the flight attendants) because they did a fantastic job. But the team had definitely helped take the pressure off’ them. It was the complete personification of the Fijian people, they are completely selfless. It was just beautiful.
One of the players even held the woman’s oxygen mask above her for more than an hour, even as the plane landed. Fee compared the Fiji players to ‘big teddy bears’ and they ‘would do anything for you’.
Speaking of the woman’s illness, he added that she had ‘next to no blood pressure’ and was ‘passing in and out of consciousness’. Once the plane landed, passengers applauded the team of players and all Virgin staff involved.
Once the plane landed after the four-hour journey, Mr Fee said all the passengers on-board began clapping for the team of union players and Virgin staff.
Unlike the usual rush towards the exits, everyone waited on the flight for an extra 15 minutes to allow the ill woman and het family to leave the plane so she could receive medical attention.
Virgin Australia thanked the Fijian Sevens on Friday, with a spokesperson telling Daily Mail Australia:
We would like to thank those players for their kind gesture and efforts on board. Not only were our crew appreciative of the support provided but they were also very impressed with the professional standard of the players’ work. We wish them the best of luck in the competition ahead.
What absolute legends – a bit of faith restored in humanity…
