EasyJet Flight Overloaded, Passengers Told Get Off Or Face Arrest

AOL Travel News:

After an EasyJet plane was overloaded with fuel, dozens of passengers were ordered off the plane and threatened with arrest if they refused.

The plane sat on the tarmac for a half hour before the captain announced he had some 'bad news,' explaining the flight from Birmingham, England to Geneva, Switzerland was topped off with 11 tons too much fuel.

Read the whole story: AOL Travel News

Comments

[HighDesertBob]

07:20 PM on 01/12/2011

I don't know the length of the runway at Birmingham, but apparently it was too short to accommodate an aircraft of that weight. The crew could have defueled the airplane, but that would have taken time and they probably needed the gate for another flight.
If they had taken off, the issue is the gross weight of the plane at landing, there is a maximum gross weight they can land with. This is why planes occasionally dump fuel when landing for an emergency (and the fire danger, of course).

[above]

01:38 PM on 01/12/2011

Print The airline passenger who got into an angry war of words with media newshound Arianna Huffington for using her BlackBerry when their plane was taking off was unrepentant yesterday, claiming she needlessly imperiled the safety of other travelers by selfishly ignoring the rules.

"She was putting the use of her BlackBerry ahead of the safety of the entire plane. It was purely her own self-interest she was concerned with," said Ellis Belodoff, 53.

[Totto]

01:07 PM on 01/12/2011

More "sincere apologies" from the airline. Yeah, sure.

[tjr101]

02:36 AM on 01/12/2011

This is the funniest thing I've read all day, hilarious!!!

[Marla Thurman]

02:19 AM on 01/12/2011

Nobody thinks they have to provide good customer service anymore. And I guess they don't because we keep buying their product.

The airline should go out of business.

[Tom95134]

04:38 AM on 01/12/2011

It probably will... eventually. Any airline that hauls around a lot of extra fuel is not making much money on flights. There are cheaper way to get fuel from point A to point B.

The one thing I wonder is did they off-load any cargo or was that too much of a money-maker.

[Mr Universe]

04:46 PM on 01/12/2011

My guess is they wanted specific passengers from the front and rear of plane for weight and balance reasons.

[Kelly Nickell]

12:32 AM on 01/12/2011

Whoops. Tell Joan she's gonna have to set off a coupla steamer trunks.

[absolutesense]

12:27 AM on 01/12/2011

Their customer service is pathetic.
This is just another good reason to have a international consumer law to protect those passengers.

[rosal]

11:45 PM on 01/11/2011

Did the passengers told them to refund their ticket and other expenses immediately, or they will get them arrested? I would.

[Fucue]

11:41 PM on 01/11/2011

Amazing. The airline screws-up and the customers are threatened with arrest.

[ginger42]

10:52 PM on 01/11/2011

11 tons? You got to be kidding. How does that happen?

[FredKnowsBest]

11:29 PM on 01/11/2011

They only missed it by about 1600 gallons.

[Kelly Nickell]

12:33 AM on 01/12/2011

laughing.

[HockeyMom]

09:48 AM on 01/12/2011

Must of been taking a smoke break. hahaha

[Orwellian]

01:41 AM on 01/12/2011

I'd be off an over fueled plane as fast as I could go, and you wouldn't have to threaten me with anything at all.

[Tom95134]

04:43 AM on 01/12/2011

Why? "Stuff" happens. Someone simply ordered too much fuel to be loaded or decided that to save time/money at an intermediate stop or turnaround they would simply load extra fuel. I guess no one took the time to do the weight & balance calculations until the last minute. Normally, the fuel determination is made once a reasonably accurate headcount is made (estimated) and the cargo calculations are made.

[SirLaxer]

10:38 PM on 01/11/2011

What he didn't tell them was that the 11 extra tons were not in the fuel tank, but were accidentally poured into the baggage and cargo hold.

Oops.

[VintageMary]

09:18 PM on 01/11/2011

That seems like an awful lot to overfuel. Somebody wasnt paying attention at the pump.

[Tom95134]

04:47 AM on 01/12/2011

Maybe someone was using a calculator set to English Units instead of Metric Units of measure. You don't do fuel calculations by the gallon. You calculate it by weight and then convert it to gallons. The reverse of this has happened and the flight ran out of fuel.

[lenuk]

07:41 AM on 01/12/2011

"Freefall: Flight 174" (TV 1995)

[Halsey]

08:17 PM on 01/11/2011

Yikes 11 TONS? Instead of saying " you face arrest" I'd just say " you face death in a fireball as the plane can't get lift. I'd be the 2nd one off (after the pilots I'm sure).

[SirLaxer]

10:35 PM on 01/11/2011

I just snorted while laughing. Thank you.

[Marla Thurman]

02:21 AM on 01/12/2011

Yes, not only would this have been more effective, it would have been more honest and less entitled.

[MajorKong]

03:40 PM on 01/11/2011

EasyJet flies 737s and A319s.

22,000 pounds of extra fuel is a LOT on a plane that size. I'm curious how they messed it up that bad and why they couldn't get a truck out there to de-fuel it.

[Kelly Nickell]

12:35 AM on 01/12/2011

Marshmallows; lots of marshmallows. Anyone got some chocolate? I have grahams and a lighter.

[HockeyMom]

09:51 AM on 01/12/2011

Hot dogs cooked in jet fuel are a delicacy....catchup, mustard and pickles mmmmm

[Mr Universe]

02:12 AM on 01/12/2011

Defueling is a pain. I've only done it once but you have to disembark the passengers and all the fuel systems are made to go in primarily in one direction. Very time consuming.

Also the decibel level on the ramp is pretty loud. If you aren't getting hand signals from the pilots, you're probably getting them by radio. Easy to hear incorrectly.

[Tom95134]

04:49 AM on 01/12/2011

Also, once the fuel is pumped into the plane it cannot be added back to the deliverable fuel in the depot. It has to be disposed of in some other way.

[GeorgeBurnsWasRight]

02:58 PM on 01/11/2011

Besides this story, there was also a story today about 3 people being removed from a plane because the flight attendant(s) didn't like their vibes or something.

I'm glad I rarely fly these days. It's like being on a Japanese game show.

[R Z]

10:44 PM on 01/11/2011

lol totally. tetris people in the miniscule seats.