Passengers Push Plane - 74 passengers aboard a frozen Tupolev-134 plane are making international headlines after they pushed the aircraft to free it from ice and allowing it to take off from Igarka airport, above the Arctic Circle.
Yahoo reports that this "passengers push plane" incident occurred as the 30-ton plane got stuck because the pilot forgot to take off the parking brake. The brake then froze up after temperatures dropped to minus 61 degrees Fahrenheit Tuesday morning.
The flight was from Igarka, about 2,800 kilometres northeast of Moscow, to the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk.
Afraid that the flight could be delayed, the passenger's push plane occurrence took place since the people aboard the flight didn't want any delay.
The plane was reportedly being operated by a Siberian airline called Katekavia, part of UTair group.
"Due to the low air temperatures, the chassis's brake system froze and a tow truck was unable to move the plane onto the taxiway to carry out the flight," prosecutors said in a statement regarding the passengers push plane event.
"The passengers on board got out of the plane and started pushing it onto the taxiway," said the statement.
Story of the passengers pushing plane emerged after one of them posted a video via YouTube. The footage showed the group of travellers pushing the Tupolev plane merrily on the snow-covered Russian runway.
In the video capturing the passengers push plane occurrence, men can be heard shouting.
"Come on, push!," said one man. "Real men can plant a tree, build a house, and push a plane."
"Let's go," others passengers said while donning thick winter coat. The passengers pushed the plane by putting their hands on the wings and shoving it several metres along the runway.
"We just want to get back home," another traveler added.
Apparently, another reason for the uneventful occurrence of the passengers pushing plane incident developed as the wrong kind of grease was used for the landing gear. The type is reportedly unsuitable for Far North locations and on one of the coldest seasons of the year.
Vladimir Artemenko, technical director of Katekavia, the company running the flight jointly with UTair, mentioned that the plane was technically serviceable. However, the chilly temperatures led it to freeze up.
At the time, the airport's tractor reportedly could not move the aircraft because of its frozen brake pads.
"When people pushed the plane, the wheel cranked out, and then the aircraft could continue to move," Artemenko explained.
He also acknowledged the passenger's push plane incident in the Rossiyskaya Gazeta newspaper.
"That morning it was -52 C," he said. "The plane had stood on the runway for 24 hours and the pilots forgot to take off the parking brake, that caused the brake pads to freeze up."
Passengers pushed the plane until it turned, after which the tow truck took over.
Meanwhile, reports of the passengers push plane occurrence eventually led to worldwide praise.
"Siberians are so tough that for them pushing a frozen plane along a runway is a piece of cake," said a Russian daily newspaper called Komsomolskaya Pravda.
Social media were also brimming with praise for the passengers who pushed the plane.
Пассажирам пришлось толкать примерзший самолет, #видео за гранью фантастики: https://t.co/0bcGWrFf1T #самолет #Сибирь pic.twitter.com/kwGV8UItNF
— Комсомольская правда (@onlinekpru) November 26, 2014
"Who mentioned sanctions?... We just push together and off we fly," a Dmitry Kozlov wrote on Twitter.
"It's just an ordinary morning in Russia. People push-start a plane at minus 50," said Lentach.
Despite social media praise, the passenger's push plane amusement did go too well with some officials, according to the Siberian Times.
Oksana Gorbunova, a West Siberian transport prosecutor's aide, reportedly rebuked the plane movers.
"Passengers were asked to leave the plane and go to the bus standing nearby," she said. "After that, some of them voluntarily left the bus and went to the plane, trying to assist in moving it using physical force."
"Naturally, the plane was moved by the truck, because people physically could not do it. It looks like a joke. It would be funny if it could not have dire consequences: people could damage the casing and flaps of the aircraft."
The Russian transport police were also alerted of the passengers push plane incident soon as the mobile phone footage was posted online.
"Due to the low air temperatures, the chassis's brake system froze and a tow truck was unable to move the plane onto the taxiway to carry out the flight," the transport police confirmed in a statement.
"The passengers on board got out of the plane and started pushing it onto the taxiway."
After launching an official investigation into the Russian push plane thing, Russian investigators and said the passengers had no right to push the plane. They are now examining whether any air safety laws were broken, according to the AFP.
"Most likely, the plane's passengers, oil workers, decided to do a kind of 'selfie'. It was a good joke and it became a big thing on the Internet," said Airport chief Maxim Aksyonov.
"We were on the bus that took us on the plane when we were asked to help the tractor," one of the passengers told Life News. "Before that, we had already spent one day at the airport, waiting for our departure."
"We pushed it a short distance - about five metres, maybe more. I worked for four years on shifts, but do not recall that we pushed the plane previously."
After the passengers pushed the plane, the aircraft was able to take off later on and land safely in Krasnoyarsk. No one was hurt from the incident. Most of the passengers reportedly were oil and gas workers, who are on their way home after a project in the Arctic production fields. A UTair plane crashed in Siberia in 2012 and killed 29 people after its wings were not de-iced.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
