Passengers travel on flights to have a safe and convenient journey to reach their destination. However, what if you are onboard a plane but are asked to leave? Weird right? This scenario happened in a UK-based airline, Easy Jet, 19 passengers onboard a flight from Lanzarote to Liverpool were asked to get off the plane as it was ‘too heavy to take off.’ The incident occurred on July 05 and the flight was delayed amid the poor weather and its weight.
According to the media reports, the flight was supposed to take off at 9.45 pm. However, it did not depart from Spain’s airport until 11.30 pm after passengers were asked to volunteer to ‘choose not to fly’.
A video clip of the plane went viral on the internet, where the pilot said, “Thank you all for getting here today. Because there are so many of you, it’s a pretty heavy aircraft we’ve got today.”
Further, the pilot of Easy Jet said, “That heavy aircraft combined with a fairly short runway here in Lanzarote, and some winds which aren’t completely favourable at the moment, mean that with the current environmental conditions here in Lanzarote, the aircraft is too heavy at the moment to depart.”
There was no way that the flight could fly, given the wind condition and safety being their company’s priority, the pilot said.
He added, “There are a number of factors – it’s very hot, the wind isn’t fantastic, the direction isn’t great. Now, you might be wondering what happens next and that’s what I’ve come in here to say. I have spoken with our operations team and the one way to solve a problem with a heavy aircraft is to make it slightly lighter.”
That’s not it, the pilot then invited almost 20 passengers to ‘choose to leave the plane’ and ‘not to fly Liverpool tonight.’ In order to make the passengers agree to his request, the pilot also announced incentives of up to 500 euros to each passenger by Easy Jet, for not continuing with their travel.
Speaking to the media, an Easy Jet spokesperson said that 19 passengers finally volunteered to leave the flight.
Moreover, the spokesperson said, “Easy Jet can confirm that 19 passengers on flight EZY3364 from Lanzarote to Liverpool yesterday evening volunteered to travel on a later flight as a result of the aircraft being over the weight limits for the weather conditions. This is a routine operational decision in these circumstances and weight restrictions are in place for all airlines for safety reasons.”
“In the event that a flight would exceed weight limits, we ask for passengers to volunteer to transfer to a later flight free of charge, which is what happened on this occasion, and volunteers are provided with compensation in line with regulations,” the spokesperson concluded, adding that the safety of the passengers and their staff is the airline’s highest priority.
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