A Terrifying Balancing Act

Petrified tourists boycott flight after being told to sit at back 'to help balance the jet'; airline calls it routine procedure

Petrified tourists boycott flight after being told to sit at back 'to help balance the jet'; airline calls it routine procedure

When tourists on a UK-bound flight were asked to sit at the back of the plane to balance luggage in the front of the hold, many thought it was a bad joke. But it was a serious request.
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One of the doors to the hold was jammed, meaning bags could be loaded only at one end, making the plane nose-heavy.

See-saw: Seventy-one passengers refused to board the plane.

But the call for passengers to act as human ballast towards the tail provoked pa-nic, and 71 refused to board.
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The travellers had been waiting to fly to Newcastle on a Thomas Cook flight when they were told to abandon their seats and sit at the rear.
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The captain insisted the plane was safe, but some of those waiting to board claim that in-coming passengers, disembarking from the same plane, told them not to get on as it was the worst flight they had ever had.
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Dave Charlton, who was due to travel on Sunday's flight with his wife and son, was terrified by the look on the faces of tourists getting off the plane. "People were kissing the ground and praying. Some were crying," he said.
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"When people are getting off the plane saying, 'Don't get on' and we'd been told there was a fault with it, there was no way we would get on.

All we asked was that they fix it. We wanted a plane that would stay level without us being used as ballast."

Rowen Laybourne (17), who was on her first foreign holiday without her parents, also refused to board. She and her friends slept on the floor of the airport using the few euros they had left to buy food and water.

She flew back by another airline after her parents booked a flight. Rowen's mother said, "When people wouldn't get on, Thomas Cook washed their hands off them."

The plane returned with 115 passengers on board.

Thomas Cook said, "It is standard for airlines to ensure cargo and passengers are evenly distributed, and there will be times when passengers will be asked to move. This poses no safety issue."