Passengers in Russia’s Arctic push-start plane

The plane due to fly from the Artic town of Ingarka on Tuesday to Krasnoyarsk got stuck when its chassis brakes got frozen.

In other countries, you may be asked to give a push to a car stuck in the mud. In Russia, passengers in the Arctic came out of an airliner to the bitter cold to help it move to the runway.

Russian prosecutors said a Tu-134 due to fly from the Artic town of Ingarka on Tuesday to Krasnoyarsk, nearly 1,300 kilometres to the south, got stuck when its chassis brakes got frozen. It was -52 degrees Celsius outside and the passengers, most of whom are likely to be oil workers, seemed desperate to get home.

An amateur video posted online showed several dozen men pushing the plane by leaning on both wings until it moved.

The prosecutors launched a probe into a possible breach of safety regulations.