Passenger Pushback! It sounds like something to come out of the mind of Ryanair Boss Michael O'Leary, getting passengers to push-back their aircraft. But not so, according to Russian media that's exactly what happened at a remote and frightfully cold Siberian airport.
Passengers in Igarka, a small town in the far north of Russia’s Krasnoyarsk region, learned that their plane had become stuck on the ground as temperatures plunged to minus 52C (-59F).
A video also shows them pushing the aircraft wings to get the plane moving along the ground after its breaks had frozen in the 'parked' position. The aircraft was a Tupolev 134 operated by Katekavia, a subsidiary of Utair, one of Russia’s biggest airlines.
Eventually the flight departed and the 74 passengers, landed safely in the regional centre of Krasnoyarsk. A spokesperson for Katekavia denied the plane had become stuck and claimed the pushback tractor sent to move the aircraft had become stuck.
An investigation has already begun into the facts of the aircraft's predicament and how the passengers came to be pushing the aircraft and on the apron.