--- description: A group of intrepid passengers helped push a plane stuck on a Russian tarmac despite freezing temperatures title: Russia: Watch Passengers Push Frozen Plane image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [World](/section/world/) ## World Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [russia](/tag/russia/) ## russia Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Watch Dozens of Passengers Help Push a Frozen Russian Plane by [Megan Gibson](/author/megan-gibson/) ## Megan Gibson Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Nov 27, 2014 2:28 PM CUT by [Megan Gibson](/author/megan-gibson/) ## Megan Gibson Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Nov 27, 2014 2:28 PM CUT Though it sounds like a punchline of a joke, scores of passengers at an airport in Igarka, Russia, located about 100 miles north of the Arctic Circle, tried to push a frozen aircraft that was stuck on the tarmac on Wednesday. It wasn’t an easy task. The [New York _Times_ reports](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/27/world/europe/stuck-russian-plane-gets-a-push-possibly-symbolic-from-passengers.html "undefined") that the temperature in Igarka was -47.2°F (-44°C) and the aircraft, a Tupolev-134 jet, weighed 70-tonnes. Oksana Gorbunova, a spokeswoman for the West Siberia Transportation Prosecutor, told Tass news agency: “In order to deliver the plane to the taxiway, the passengers were invited to leave the plane and move to a bus parked nearby. After that, some of them arbitrarily left the bus and approached the plane trying to assist with the use of physical force.” A video of the mission was recorded and uploaded to YouTube where it quickly went viral. Though there have been conflicting reports on why the plane broke down — and who was responsible for the mishap — the transportation prosecutor told the New York _Times_ in a statement that the aircraft’s braking system had frozen and another key part had stalled. The statement added that prosecutors “will assess the legality of the actions of all those involved.” \[[_NYT_](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/27/world/europe/stuck-russian-plane-gets-a-push-possibly-symbolic-from-passengers.html "undefined")\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3608769/russian-frozen-plane/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3608769/russian-frozen-plane/"},"headline":"Watch Dozens of Passengers Help Push a Frozen Russian Plane","datePublished":"2014-11-27T14:28:58.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T02:25:47.052Z","description":"A group of intrepid passengers helped push a plane stuck on a Russian tarmac despite freezing temperatures","url":"https://time.com/3608769/russian-frozen-plane/","keywords":["russia","World","Frozen","plane"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan Gibson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/megan-gibson/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/russia/","name":"russia"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3608769/russian-frozen-plane/","name":"Watch Dozens of Passengers Help Push a Frozen Russian Plane"}}]}] ```