NOW THEY KNOW Russell Crowe throws a tantrum

Posted on 12/30/2015

There has been a fair amount of recent press about the banning of lithium batteries on board aircraft. However, when tough guy Russell Crowe arrived at Sydney Airport in Australia, he was incensed that Virgin Australia refused to carry his sons' hoverboards and has vowed never again to fly with the airline.

Crowe, who is becoming more famous for his temper tantrums and movie star attitude rather than his movie roles, took to Twitter to vent against the airline. "Ridiculous @VirginAustralia. No Segway boards as luggage? Too late to tell us at airport. Kids and I offloaded. Goodbye Virgin. Never again," he posted. 'I'm a father with two kids at an airport, trying to start our holiday." The airline immediately responded, tweeting, "Hi Russell, due to safety concerns over the lithium ion batteries in hoverboards, these have been banned on all major Australian airlines and many around the world."

"We're sorry you were not aware of this prior to check-in today. We hope to see you on board again soon." This did little to calm Crowe who demanded to know where the airline's “duty of responsibility was in this” and why he wasn't informed when making the booking. Hoverboards have been banned by many major airlines globally, because of fears that the batteries used to power them are prone to overheating and can ignite. This month Amazon pulled them from its online store after safety concerns.

All of this has been covered pretty extensively in the media, and if Crowe had cared to check, the information is available on the Virgin Australia website. While it is incumbent on an airline to advise passengers what they can and cannot take on board, they can hardly be expected to know what each traveller is carrying and advise each specifically (even one as important as Russell Crowe) passengers do have to take some responsibility to check regarding any unusual items. A hoverboard is hardly regular baggage – so why not check first? However, perhaps Russell Crowe has provided an inadvertent service to travellers – certainly more people today are aware that hoverboards are banned by many airlines than were informed before he began his well publicized rant.

That’s a good thing.