Can everyone sit at the back of the plane, please; What holidaymakers were told after their flight home developed a hitch.

Byline: KATY SIMPSON

MORE than 70 alarmed holidaymakers refused to board a plane to Newcastle Airport because they feared the aircraft was not fit to fly.

Chaos broke out on a Thomas Cook flight when passengers in Mallorca were told to abandon their allocated seat numbers and sit at the rear of the aircraft to balance it out.

As people were boarding, ground staff explained that one of the hold doors was jammed shut and so luggage could only be loaded into the front of the plane.

To even out the weight distribution, passengers were told they needed to make sure the aircraft remained level.

Tension grew as people demanded reassurances that the jammed hold door would not suddenly become unstuck and open mid-flight.

Passengers waiting to board claim that in-coming holidaymakers, disembarking the same plane, warned them not to get on it as it was the worst flight many of them had ever experienced.

Thomas Cook says it was a routine procedure, which posed no safety risk at all.

A Thomas Cook spokeswoman said: "It is standard for all airlines to ensure cargo and passengers are evenly distributed on an aircraft and there will be times when passengers will be asked to move to the front or back of a plane.

"This is a routine industry procedure and poses no safety issue.

"We are disappointed that despite reassurances from the captain and crew, a number of passengers decided not to travel." But in Mallorca panic swept through the crowd at the departure gate, as people insisted that the fault should be fixed before take-off.

A total of 71 people refused to get on the plane and made their own way home instead, paying hundreds of pounds for flights with other airlines.

Terrified teenager Rowen Laybourne was among a number of passengers who flew home with easyJet the following day.

The 17-year-old, from Cramlington, spent the night sleeping on the floor of the airport with her friends who had just a few Euros left between them to buy food and water.

Rowen had her purse stolen during her holiday, which was the first time she had been abroad without her parents.

That meant she had no way of withdrawing more money and she had to call her parents to book the new flight home for her.

Rowen said: "We were given our seat numbers, but then they said to forget them because we all needed to sit at the back.

"I didn't know what to do because I didn't want to get on the plane, but I didn't know how to get home otherwise.

"I know my mum is scared of flying too so I wondered what would she do in that situation. I rang her and she begged me not to get on the plane." Rowen's mum Hazel said: "When they were told they would need to sit near the back to help balance the plane out, they couldn't believe what they were hearing.

"It was like they were being asked to fly in something that was being balanced out like a see-saw.

"When people wouldn't get on it, Thomas Cook just washed their hands of them. I didn't sleep all night because I was worrying about my daughter." Also on the easyJet flight to Newcastle were Dave Charlton, his wife, Susan, and son, Adam, six, of Blyth.

They said they had been terrified by the faces of tourists getting off the plane with the jammed door.

"People were kissing the ground and putting their hands together like they were praying," said Dave, who paid pounds 600 for the second round of flights for his family.

"They said that at first they thought it was turbulence, but that it must have been because the weight distribution was wrong.

"There were girls sobbing and children crying.

"When people are getting off the plane saying 'don't get on', and you've been told there's a fault with it, would you want to get on? "It's just not worth the risk. All we asked was that they fixed it.

"We just wanted a plane that would stay level without us being used as ballast," he said..

CAPTION(S):

TERRIFIED TEENS: Jessica Butler, Rowen Laybourne, Abby Green, Rachel Henderson and Abby Guttridge ORDEAL: Rowen Laybourne, 17, with her mother, Hazel