Qantas will be paying tribute to flight attendant Luke Davies at the Sydney Mardi Gras this weekend after he was allegedly murdered alongside his partner Jesse Baird by police officer Beau Lamarre-Condon.
Luke’s former employers will be honouring him by placing his name on the front of its Mardi Gras float, which is most often the nose of a plane. The tribute comes after the organisation received an overwhelming request from staff to do so. However, it is expected that other organisations and individuals participating in the parade will also be honouring Luke and Jesse at the event.
Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Board and Co-Chair Brandon Bear told ABC News that the organisation is working with the community to honour the couple.
“Mardi Gras is a multiplicity of things and we come together not just to celebrate, but also to spark conversation to make a change and this year, there’ll be an element of us coming together to mourn,” he explained.
“We’re certainly working with the community (to recognise the couple) and we know our partners are working to use their parade float to talk to the lives and the memory of those young men.”
Luke joined the ranks at Qantas in September 2022 and most recently had been a flight attendant on international flights. With a love for travel and adventure, being a flight attendant was reportedly Luke’s dream job.
Shortly after his passing, Qantas cabin crew executive manager Leeanne Langridge made a statement.
“This is an incredibly sad time for those who worked alongside Luke Davies at Qantas,” she said, per the ABC.
“Luke was a much-loved member of the Qantas cabin crew community in Brisbane and Sydney. He had a passion for travel, life, his family and friends and the customers that he served. He will be deeply missed.
“The whole team at Qantas are thinking of Luke and Jesse’s loved ones.”
Soon, fellow flight attendants who had worked with Luke began to share more touching tributes on social media with many describing him as “a beacon of sunshine”
“He was not just a close friend; he was a source of inspiration, a constant reminder of the beauty in life,” Caroline Jamieson wrote.
“Your laughter was infectious to everyone around you … your passing leaves a void that words can hardly express.”
The Sydney Morning Herald also shared a Qantas passenger’s positive experience with Luke. According to his colleague Brooke Walters, Luke would bend over backwards to make sure the people he was attending to were well looked after.
Brooke said that three weeks ago, Luke was attending to a couple flying from Sydney to Switzerland via Singapore. The elderly man was dying from dementia, and they were heading overseas to visit their son before the man passed away.
Brooke said the way Luke took care of this couple brought her, and their colleagues, to tears.
“The wife had told him [her husband] had severe dementia, and she was really saddened by it because she kept saying he was the most beautiful husband and kindest man, and she was losing him to this cruel disease,” she said, per the Sydney Morning Herald.
“She was getting exhausted because every 30 seconds he was losing his memory, like a goldfish, and Luke took it upon himself to care for them constantly.”
Walters explained that Luke spent the entire flight — including his break — tending to the couple and ensuring that they were calm and comfortable.
“Luke had been told they booked the flight a year and a half ago, but the husband had deteriorated in the last three months really badly, so it was going to be their last trip to see their son, and Luke wanted it to be as comfortable as possible,” Brooke said.
“She was so anxious the entire time, and Luke was able to support not only herself but the husband and make sure she was able to get the rest she needed before their next 14-hour flight because she was his full-time carer.”
As Lamarre-Condon was a serving police officer, the presence of NSW Police at the Sydney Mardi Gras has been called into question. On February 26, the NSW police were officially uninvited from the parade. However, two days later, the organisers of the event changed their minds. Instead, NSW police officers were given the go-ahead to participate in the festivities but only if they agreed to not march in uniform.
Lamarre-Condon has been charged with two counts of murder.
