Plane passengers get out and push after landing gear freezes

When bad weather hits the UK, airports often go into meltdown, with flights cancelled and delayed.

Over in Russia, when a plane's landing gear froze over in sub-zero temperatures, what did they do? The hardy passengers got out and pushed.

The passengers - and the plane - became stuck in Igarka, a remote Siberian town in the Arctic Circle, and were first asked to exit the plane so it could break free from the ice.

The plane was operated by Katekavia, a subsidiary of Utair, one of Russia's biggest airlines.

The Metro reports that a spokeswoman from Utair said: "The passengers disembarked to lighten the weight, and then they volunteered to move it."

According to the Mirror, LifeNews Russia reports that the wrong type of lubricant was used, meaning the plane was unable to move on the runway.

Vladimir Artemenko, technical director of Katekavia, said that the plane was technically serviceable, but the chilly temperatures led it to freeze up.

The airport's tractor could not move the Tu-134 because its brake pads were frozen. He told The Siberian Times: "When people pushed the plane, the wheel cranked out, and then the aircraft could continue to move."

While the passengers could be seen smiling and laughing in video footage of the incident, some officials were not so amused.

According to the Guardian, an official at the local prosecutor's office, Oksana Gorbunova, told Interfax news agency that an investigation would be opened to find out why the passengers had got out and pushed the plane.

"They pushed the plane as if it was a car that had got stuck, which is categorically forbidden as it can damage the plane's exterior, for example," he said.

Igarka lies 163 km (100 miles) north of the Arctic Circle in the Krasnoyarsk region.

It can experience temperatures as low as -52C. Yes, you read that right.

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