Passengers on an EasyJet flight who were told to leave an aircraft or face arrest if they refused have been compensated.
The Boxing Day flight from Birmingham to Geneva had 10 tonnes too much fuel so the captain asked the last 37 passengers to board to get off.
When some refused to leave they were told police officers were in the airport terminal and would arrest them.
Unbeknown to the rest of the passengers, their luggage was also removed from the flight to save weight.
They only discovered their bags had been left in the UK when they landed in Switzerland. Some did not receive their luggage for another five days.
EasyJet apologised to all passengers on the flight and said an investigation was still ongoing.
Corporate affairs manager Andrew McConnell said: “All passengers who couldn’t fly have received 250 euros denied boarding compensation and were put up in hotels overnight. We are still investigating why all the bags were taken off. We are sorry and we are investigating; incidents like this are very rare.”
He added: “The cause of the weight restriction was due to a fuelling error which resulted in the aircraft taking on too much fuel and, therefore, being too heavy for take off.”