Ten Pound Pom joins a historic Qantas flight home

THE first direct flight from Australia to Europe has landed, right on time.

Most of the passengers aboard the Qantas Dreamliner were aware they were part of a history-making event.

Addressing the media in his pyjamas on the flight, Qantas chief Alan Joyce said the success of the Perth-London route could pave the way for direct flights from Perth to Paris in the future.

There was a stowaway on the historic flight that Mr Joyce didn’t know about — the ashes of Ten Pound Pom Bar- bara Smithers were on-board, in a calico bag tied up with a red ribbon. Headed home, to her birthplace of Surrey, “Aunty Barb” was in the hand luggage of Melanie and Robert Van Haaren, from Cairns, and Melanie’s sister Sally Ross from Darwin.

The much-loved family member died last year, and had always expressed a wish to be returned to her home town after her death.

The family even got an opportunity to talk to Mr Joyce and get a photograph with him, in the transit lounge at Perth airport.

At the end of the flight, the family said the Dreamliner flight had been everything they had hoped it would be, and more.

The improvements in Economy on the Dreamliner were significant, with extra leg room and better seats leading to a much more comfortable longhaul flight, she said.