BLAME the men. There were too many on board and this flight was going nowhere. So passengers pulled out their wallets and paid four people to leave.

According to the Liverpool Echo, Thursday's 7.05am EasyJet flight from John Lennon Airport was delayed for an hour-and-a-half because it was 300kg overweight.

An easyJet spokesman told the newspaper that the plane was overweight due to an “exceptionally high proportion of male passengers” on board.

EasyJet staff allegedly offered £100 ($150) compensation to any passenger willing to depart the plane, but struggled to find any takers.

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Desperate to get off the ground one group of passengers including engineer Simon Lay, did a whip around and doubled the compensation offer.

Four people then vacated their seats.

“The whip-round certainly happened, I put two quid in. I saw other people throwing in fivers," Mr Lay said.

The four passengers were able to board a later flight to Geneva that afternoon each $300 richer.

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