Many people are used to giving their cars a push start in freezing temperatures, but it really takes some effort to give the same treatment to a 61,640-pound, 122-foot-long passenger jet in temperatures of -62 degrees.
Provincial Russian airports, where passengers get out and push a plane like it's no big deal. http://t.co/uijWPcwRwV
That's exactly what 74 passengers had to do Wednesday in Igarka, located some 163 miles north of the Arctic Circle in the Krasnoyarsk region of Russia, when they joined a seven-strong crew in shifting a Tupolev Tu-134 from the frozen ground with their bare hands.
Having spent over 24 hours on the tarmac, the plane's breaking system had frozen solid, Tass.Ru reported.
The passengers lined up on both wings...
...gave an almighty heave...
...before the UTair jet was free.
A spokesperson for UTair said: "The passengers disembarked to lighten the weight, and then they volunteered to move it," RT reported.
Oksana Gorbunova, of West Siberia's transport prosecution department, told Tass.Ru: "In air temperatures as low as -52 degrees Celsius its braking system got jammed. The tug-truck failed to get the plane moving so friendly passengers agreed to help and they soon safely left for home."
Prosecutors are now probing the incident.
According to Tass.Ru, one of the passengers (all of whom were rotation workers in the oil industry) said: "Several things that make a real man's life worth living: Writing a book, planting a tree, or at least bracing one's muscles to help an immobilized passenger plane take to the skies."
The longer video of the incident can be seen here:
