An airline was forced to put on an extra flight due to fears a group of sumo wrestlers would break their weight limits.

The chubby fighters caused the rumpus when they headed to a competition in Japan. Japan Airlines was forced to bring in an extra jet after discovering they weighed around 120kg each – far above the 70kg average weight of its passengers.

The airline said it feared the jets would be weighed down by the flabby athletes and cause it to run out of fuel. A spokesman for the airline said: "When we were in the process of making the flight plan, we found that there were many reservations for sumo wrestlers.

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"And when we checked their weight, we found that the flight might be overweight."

They added it was “extremely rare” to operate special flights due to weight restrictions. The group of 450 wrestlers were attempting to fly to a competition on the island of Amami Oshima from Tokyo and Osaka.

Airline officials also decided the island’s airport was too small to handle larger planes, so it decided to put on the extra flight from Tokyo. The jet took to the sky with 27 passengers on board, including 14 who were transferred on another flight from Osaka to the Japanese capital.

It is understood additional flights were also put on to take the wrestlers home after the tournament ended on Sunday. Amami Oshima is considered the capital of sumo wrestling.

Ōrora Satoshi, a Russian-born sumo, who retired in 2018, is the heaviest rikishi ever as he weighed 292.6 kg at his peak. Sumo wrestlers are not the only horror passenger for airlines to deal with, though.

Former professional wrestler Andre the Giant was infamous for his antics on-board cross-country flights. One incident on board a long haul flight left other passengers gasping for air as the behemoth wrestler unleashed hell in the toilets.

Cabin members were left "puking" at the horror state of the toilet, with the Daily Star reporting the terrified outcry which followed the "world's biggest poo" incident.

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