11 June, 2014

By VIVA Team

The TOWIE cast members enjoy some hard-earned champers after their easyJet delay (Credit: Photo by Beretta/Sims/REX)

Considering how little cast members of hit reality TV show The Only Way is Essex (TOWIE) are likely to wear as they strut their manicured stuff around Marbella this week, the news that their easyJet plane had to be delayed due to excess baggage comes as quite a surprise.

The Daily Mail has reported that Saturday’s Southend-to-Malaga easyJet flight was some 200kg overweight once all passengers had boarded, prompting four volunteers to pipe up to be moved to an alternative flight leaving a little later from Luton airport…The news that seven TOWIE cast members were on board (none other than Arg, Ricky Rayment, Lauren Pope, Grace Andrews, Fran Parman, Bobby Cole Norris and Jasmin Walia) heading for a 10-day trip to Marbella may go some way to explaining the delay.

According to Heat magazine, Bobby had exceeded his own carry-on allowance by 4kg – an excess thought to be down to too much hairspray.

A flight attendant has said that during her 20-year career she has never known for a plane to be delayed because the passengers and their luggage weighed too much. “But then,” she added, “I’ve never had TOWIE on board before.”

Speaking to Heat magazine, Bobby Cole-Norris told of how the drama unfolded. “We were at Southend runway when the pilot came out of the cockpit – and when he does that you know there’s something to worry about,” deduced the reality TV star. “he got on the walkie talkie to say ‘We’re 200kg over, four people have to get off and be put in a cab to Luton. There’s a flight tonight and we’ll give you €120 each,’ but obviously nobody dare do it so after about 20 minutes the pilot said ‘I’m not taking off unless people do it.’”

Helpfully, TOWIE’s Jasmin Walia added that there would be ‘No way’ any TOWIE member would do it for such a paltry sum, calling it a ‘massive inconvenience’. Luckily for all concerned, four ladies volunteered for the other flight, and soon the easyJet plane – complete with its precious TOWIE cargo – was on its way.

easyJet issued a statement on the incident, saying that like all airlines, easyJet’s flights have weight restrictions based on a number of different variables for safety reasons. “In the event that a flight does exceed its weight limit, we ask for passengers to volunteer to transfer to another flight, which is what happened on this occasion.”

The TOWIE crew are back in Marbella for an extended summer special, and were soon spotted living it up at Ocean Club in Puerto Banus, as well as enjoying many of the other bars, restaurants and clubs for which the resort is famous.