UK low-cost carrier EasyJet is investigating how one of its Airbus A319 aircraft was so heavily over-fuelled at Birmingham Airport that more than 30 passengers had to disembark in order to bring weights down to acceptable take-off levels.
The aircraft was due to operate a flight to Geneva on 26 December when the weight problem became apparent.
A small number of passengers initially volunteered to disembark but most of the 37 had to be ordered off the aircraft after refusing to move.
In a statement EasyJet says: "We'd like to sincerely apologise to passengers affected by the weight restrictions on the flight from Birmingham, resulting in some passengers and bags being unloaded.
"The cause of the weight restriction was due to a fuelling error, which resulted in the aircraft taking on too much fuel, and therefore being too heavy for take-off when fully loaded. An investigation has been launched to understand how this happened."
An airline spokeswoman says that its management will initially be speaking to the crew of the flight to establish the sequence of events, followed by the ground handlers at Birmingham Airport.
Source: Air Transport Intelligence news
