British Airways has ordered 20 passengers off a flight to a Spanish holiday destination because an English heatwave made the plane too heavy for takeoff.
The temperature hit 35 C, according to London’s Sun newspaper – a jaw-dropping temperature in England.
Airlines sometimes have to remove passengers and their luggage from aircraft if the weather is very hot. Hotter air is less dense than cooler air, which means an plane’s wings produce less lift – requiring a higher takeoff speed and a longer runway. Planes may also have to load more fuel.
In this case case, the flight to Ibiza was from London City Airport, which has a relatively short runway.
Passengers were furious, according to the Sun online, which said the problem affected 14 flights. Passenger were asked to leave. The worst-affected flight required 20 travellers to be bumped shortly before boarding last Friday.
Passengers were left stranded in the airport, deeply upset, the paper said.
One passenger said the airline, in classic military fashion, first asked for volunteers to stay behind while everyone else flew off on holiday.
Unsurprisingly, no one came forward. The airline then picked 14 people. One family of five, who have a child with special needs, felt the process had been most unfair. The father asked why BA couldn’t have worked it out earlier, given that the forecast for the day was hot.
“They were completely unable to cope with the situation,” he said.
According to the Sun, it was the busiest air travel day of the year, the start of Summer bank holiday weekend, when the schools break up and thousands of people head off on holiday.
The airport said in a statement: “London City Airport was affected by the extreme heat which meant, to operate safely, unfortunately passengers needed to be offloaded from 14 British Airways flights.
“We’re working with the airline to ensure passengers get to their destination as quickly as possible and we apologise for the inconvenience caused.”
Written by Peter Needham
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