A Loganair flight grounded by bad weather had to dislodge passengers in order to get off the ground after being deemed “too heavy” to fly.
The flight, bound for Derry, Ireland, from London Southend Airport, got stuck on the runway on Saturday morning, reported The Independent. After a few hours’ delay, the airline asked five passengers to leave so that the airplane could lift off safely.
The carrier first asked for volunteers, tweeted passenger Ben Kelly, a journalist for The Independent, but no one seemed inclined to travel to another London airport and fly to Belfast, about two hours away from the original destination. He called it a “very disappointing situation.”
Loganair staff told the plane of 50 travelers that the same thing had happened the day before, Kelly noted.
Another option they were offered, the reporter noted in his tweet thread, was for the passengers to stay on but the luggage to be ditched, to arrive in Derry at some point.
The plane finally took off three hours later, The Independent reported.
Loganair executives tried to explain.
“The main reason for Saturday morning’s delayed departure from Southend was bad weather at Derry,” Loganair chief executive Jonathan Hinkles told The Independent. “Had it left on schedule the flight would have been diverted to Belfast International.”
But no sooner had the weather cleared up at Derry than “a combination of low pressure and rainfall left the runway surface at Southend in a condition which imposed limitations on the aircraft performance,” Hinkles said. “The aircraft was consequently over its maximum available take-off weight for the conditions. Five customers volunteered to travel via another routing to Derry.”
Loganair had offered each passenger 250 euros in compensation, plus full airfare for the trip, he said.
“We apologize to our customers for the delay, but emphasize the decision was appropriate and resulted in our customers arriving at Derry at the earliest opportunity once the weather had cleared sufficiently to enable the aircraft to land there,” Hinkle told The Independent.
While he sounded skeptical, the laws of physics would seem to bear the decision out.
“An improperly loaded and/or overloaded airplane is a danger to everyone on board,” wrote travel-management expert Bill McGee for USA Today last March. Citing the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration Weight and Balance Handbook, McGee added, “because of abnormal stresses placed upon the structure of an improperly loaded aircraft, or because of changed flying characteristics of the aircraft, loss of life and destruction of valuable equipment may result.”
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