According to a report in the Yomiuri Shimbun, a group of sumo wrestlers was scheduled to fly from Tokyo’s Haneda and Osaka’s Itami airports to the southern island of Amami Oshima aboard Boeing 737-800 aircrafts. They were set to compete in a sports festival on the island.
However, plans took a turn when airline staff, during a pre-flight passenger list check, realized that the sumo wrestlers, each averaging a weight of 120 kilograms, were among the passengers. Given the challenges associated with large aircrafts taking off and landing at Amami Airport, the airline company decided to make adjustments to the flight plan.
The airline requested that the 14 sumo wrestlers fly from Itami to Haneda to join an additional flight. A spokesperson for the airline company commented, “Organizing special flights due to weight restrictions is an extremely unusual situation for us.”
