Hunter v Alliance Airlines Pty Limited
[2026] QSC 140 · Henry J
Kirstie Hunter worked as a flight attendant and cabin manager for Alliance Airlines. In April 2020, while doing a pre-flight security check, she had to pull a heavy catering cart out of a tightly packed galley. The cart was stuck, so she pulled harder and harder from an awkward sideways position in the cramped space, and when it suddenly came free she felt severe pain in her lower back. She was left with a chronic back injury that means she can only do part-time desk work. The main dispute was whether the airline had done enough to keep her safe and how much she had lost in earnings.
The court found the airline had failed to give its crew specific training about how to safely remove carts from storage, and had no adequate system for checking how the task was actually being performed. The judge rejected the airline’s argument that Ms Hunter had partly caused her own injury.
A significant feature of the decision is that the court did not treat the case as turning on a defective cart. Rather, it turned on Alliance Airlines’ failure to risk-assess and control a foreseeable manual handling problem arising from tightly stowed carts in a confined aircraft galley. The decision is also notable for rejecting contributory negligence where the worker’s unsafe movement was found to be a natural response to a task she had been required, but not properly trained, to perform.
Incident & injury
Back injury sustained pulling a catering cart from its tightly stowed position in the aircraft galley using significant pulling force from an off-centre, twisting position during a pre-flight security check.
- Body regions
- Lumbar spine
- Diagnoses
- Back strain, Musculoligamentous injury to the lumbar spine
- Incident date
- 15 April 2020
- Location
- Alliance Fokker 100 aircraft, Cairns airport
Quick facts
- Date of judgment
- 18 June 2026
- Claim type
- WCRA Common Law
- Proceeding
- Trial
- Plaintiff outcome
- Successful
- Plaintiff age at injury
- ~29 (inferred)
- Occupation
- Flight attendant and cabin manager Community & Personal Service Worker
- Liability
- Disputed
- ISV assessed
- 9 · Item 92 (Moderate thoracic or lumbar spine injury – soft tissue injury)
- Whole Person Impairment
- 6%
- Total damages
- $602,068
Outcome
The court found Alliance liable for breach of its employer's duty of care for failing to provide specific training and a system of monitoring for the safe pulling of catering carts from stowage. No contributory negligence was found. Judgment was entered for the plaintiff for $602,068.02 (after WorkCover refund).
Defendant
1 Alliance Airlines Pty Limited
Employer
- Apportionment
- 100%
- Judgment against this defendant
- $602,068
- WorkCover refund
- $69,989
Heads of damage
| General damages | $14,690 |
|---|---|
| Past economic loss | $244,238 |
| Interest on past EL | $26,514 |
| Future loss of economic capacity | $359,945 |
| Past special damages (plaintiff) | $14,267 |
| Interest on past special damages | $2,171 |
| Future special damages | $3,977 |
| Fox v Wood | $6,254 |
| Subtotal before refunds | $672,057 |
Key issues
Hunter v Alliance Airlines Pty Limited [2026] QSC 140
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