July 7th 2023.
The pilot of an easyJet flight to Liverpool had an unusual request for passengers - he asked if up to 20 of them could leave the plane as it was too heavy to take off due to poor weather conditions. The plane was due to leave from Arrecife Airport in Lanzarote at 9.45pm on Wednesday, but the pilot explained the situation to those onboard.
He said: "Because there are so many of you it’s a pretty heavy aircraft. That heavy aircraft combined with a pretty short runway and with the current unfavourable conditions here in Lanzarote, means the aircraft is too heavy to take off." He added that he and his senior first officer were very experienced and had done this before.
The pilot then asked if up to 20 volunteers could leave the aircraft to make it lighter and in exchange they would receive up to €500. Understandably, some passengers expressed their desire to get home that night. In the end, 19 passengers volunteered to leave and the plane took off shortly before 11.30pm.
A spokesperson for easyJet explained that this is a routine operational decision in these circumstances and is done for safety reasons. They also confirmed that volunteers were provided with compensation in line with regulations.
It is worth noting that this comes shortly after a teenager was left without his wheelchair on a family trip to France after easyJet staff somehow managed to ‘lose’ it. Michael Cloke had checked the vital wheelchair into the hold before leaving Edinburgh with his mother Gillian Clark, who said being without it was having a ‘major impact’ on their trip. Unfortunately, four days later, no one at easyJet had managed to find it.
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