The great heave forward... Chinese passengers are forced to get out and push their broken passenger plane

Anyone who has ever used budget airlines know only too well how uncomfortable it can be: long queues, cramped seats and every tiny extra costs you.

But at least they are never told to get out and help push their plane.

That is exactly what happened to a group of passengers in China were after their jet broke down just after landing.

The CRJ7 plane, which had just flown some 500 miles from Guilin in the south of the country with 69 passengers and seven crew members on board, conked out before it could taxi to the arrivals terminal at Zhengzhou, capital of Henan province.

At first, airport staff were the only ones required to help push, but they could not budge the plane.

Even with the combined muscle power of staff and passengers, it took the group nearly two hours to push the plane about 1,000 yards to a side lane.

'Thank God it was only a 20-ton medium-sized airplane,' said one of the airport workers. 'If it were a big plane, it would have knocked us out.'

The jet was still parked in the side lane today waiting for technicians arriving on the next flight to fix the problem.