It is every airline passenger's worst nightmare: being seated next to a giant sumo wrestler.
But its also became a problem for Japan Airlines (JAL), which had to lay on an extra plane this week to solve a weighty problem.
The airline was flying dozens of sumo wrestlers to a competition. And wrestlers can way 120kg, rather than the 70kg of an average passenger.
That meant a flight carrying the wrestlers would have been overweight, the airline said.
A total of 27 sumos were booked on two flights to Amami Oshima, a small twon with a regional airport incapable of handling larger planes.
That meant that JAL had to lay on an extra plane to take 14 of the battling behemoths, Travel Mole reported.
“It is extremely unusual for us to operate special flights due to weight restrictions on this aircraft,” a JAL spokesperson told local media.
“We found there were many reservations for sumo wrestlers and when we checked their weight we found that the flight might be overweight.”
Amami Oshima in the south-west of Japan is well-known for its sumo wrestling heritage.
The sumo culture is so rooted in the region that there are sumo wrestling rings in each village and in school grounds.
Image: Jonny Dub scop.io
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