'Sorry, this plane is too heavy': police frogmarch holidaymakers off flight
Two holidaymakers have been forcibly removed from a Virgin Blue international flight after cabin crew told them that the plane was 'too heavy'.
Federal police were called in to remove two men from the plane at Melbourne's Tullamarine airport at the start of the Easter weekend after extra fuel was needed to fly through bad weather to Bali, the Sunday Herald Sun newspaper reports.
The plane's captain initially asked for volunteers who were willing to leave the flight but when nobody raised their hands flight staff attempted to remove the last two people to board.
The police were called after the two men refused to leave.
A witness told the newspaper the other passengers sympathised with the angry travellers.
'They had taken care to book their flights, they were ready to go to Bali and then they were told they couldn't,' said one.
Virgin spokeswoman Melissa Thomson described the incident as 'totally regrettable'.
The trouble came after a separate incident at the same airport left Jetstar and Qantas passengers to spend the weekend without their luggage at their destinations because a baggage belt had broken.
The incident caused 18 Jetstar flights and 17 Qantas flights to leave the airport Tullamarine airport without any luggage.
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