Four passengers ordered to get off overweight Easyjet plane

Four passengers had to disembark an Easyjet plane at Liverpool John Lennon Airport after it was 300kg over its weight limit - because there were too many men on board.

The airline has a policy of offering passengers £100 and an alternative flight in this kind of situation.

But the Liverpool Echo reported that £100 wasn't quite tempting enough - and passengers had to do a whip-round between them to make the cash offer a little more enticing.

Easyjet, however, said the whip-round did not take place.

According to the Mirror, passenger Simon Lay begged to differ, saying: "The whip-round certainly happened, I put two quid in.

"I saw other people throwing in fivers."

According to the Independent, a rule issued by the Europe's Joint Aviation Authorities instruct the airlines to assume that each male passenger weighs 88kg and each female 70kg, with children of both genders being 35kg.

There was a disproportionate amount of males, however, on the 7.05am flight to Geneva on Thursday, with 135 males compared with just 19 females, leaving the estimated weight way over the limit.

Easyjet confirmed that four passengers had to get off the service, but denied the whip-round, with a spokesman saying: "In these circumstances volunteers are required to offload and Easyjet offers passengers £100 in compensation and alternative flights. Four volunteers came forward and the flight departed shortly afterwards."

"As far as we can establish no other arrangements between passengers were made. There is no need for passengers to take this kind of action."

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