However you’re recovering from your Christmas holidays, friends, spare a thought for poor Hollywood actor Russell Crowe, who was forced to disembark from his Virgin Australia flight when the airline stuck to their years-long policy of not allowing large lithium batteries on board.
Russell and the fam were setting off on their holiday with a couple of Segways Boards (also known as hoverboards) in tow, which contain lithium batteries. Such batteries have been banned from airlines for donkeys, namely due to their uncanny ability to start mid-air fires.
See also: Virgin Australia’s Dangerous Goods page.
This very important fact seems to have slipped by old Russell, since he turned up to the airport fully expecting to get the Segways on the flight. When he realised this was not to be, the actor turned to Twitter to let Virgin fukken have it:
Ridiculous @VirginAustralia. No Segway boards as luggage? Too late to tell us at airport.Kids and I offloaded. Goodbye Virgin. Never again.
— Russell Crowe (@russellcrowe) December 29, 2015
The customer service rep (who must right now still be riding the confusing high that is talking to a very irate yet very famous Russell Crowe) had this not-at-all sarcastic response to his tweet:
@russellcrowe Hi Russell, due to safety concerns over the lithium ion batteries in hoverboards, these have been banned on all major… 1/3
— Virgin Australia (@VirginAustralia) December 29, 2015
@russellcrowe …Australian airlines and many around the world. We’re sorry you were not aware of this prior to check-in today. We… 2/3
— Virgin Australia (@VirginAustralia) December 29, 2015
@russellcrowe …hope to see you on board again soon. 3/3
— Virgin Australia (@VirginAustralia) December 29, 2015
And then when Russell WAS STILL NOT ENTERTAINED…
.@VirginAustralia I’m awaiting your reply, where is your duty of responsibility in this? Why not tell me when I am booking my ticket?
— Russell Crowe (@russellcrowe) December 29, 2015
…started to get a little narky:
Photo: Albert L. Ortega / Getty.
