Air Passengers Bumped to Make Room for Fuel

AOL Travel: Two passengers were escorted off a Virgin Blue plane by police Thursday when they refused to be bumped to make room for extra fuel.

The flight from Melbourne to Bali needed extra fuel to compensate for bad weather along the route. The pilot asked for two passengers to leave the flight voluntarily. When nobody offered, the last two people to board the plane were chosen.

According to a local news source, passengers sympathized with the two men. "They had taken care to book their flights, they were ready to go to Bali and then they were told they couldn't," a passenger said.

Virgin Blue called the incident "totally regrettable," IB Traveler reports. But, the fuel needed to be doubled because of the bad weather.

This isn't the first time that passengers have been bumped to make way for fuel. Back in January, 37 passengers were kicked off an EasyJet flight to accommodate 11 tons of extra fuel.