At Least You Don't Have To Push Your Plane Today

I'm about to tell you a number that will blow your mind. Unless you happen to have the equation for converting Celsius to Fahrenheit handy, then minus 52 Celsius probably doesn't mean a lot. I saw that number and tried to make an educated guess as to what it translated to, but the actual answer made me spit take. Literally, there is warm coffee all over me, which I much prefer to pushing a plane in Russia in minus 62 degrees .

That is exactly what Russian passengers were asked to do on Tuesday when their plane's brakes froze to the ground. The plane was frozen to the tarmac in northern Russia's Igarka Airport, and dozens of passengers got out to push the wings of the 30 ton Tupolev-134 airliner, successfully moving the plane backward.

Later that day, the plane safely landed in Krasnoyarsk. Most of the passengers were oil field workers heading home after a job in the Arctic region, which means that they are used to being out in these freezing temperatures. In the video of the heroic feat, according to The Siberian Times, a man is heard shouting, "We just want to get back home," and "Real men can plant a tree, build a house, and push a plane." I'm not entirely sure what tree-planting and house-building have to do with pushing planes, or manhood, for that matter, but I'm going to give him a pass and think that the cold disoriented him.

Y'all. I need to talk this out a little bit. These people willfully got out of a plane in minus 62 degrees to push it. Do you know what I would have done if I had to disembark from that plane? Run straight to the nearest heated building and wait for everything to blow over. I'm serious. I'm not afraid to admit it.

There are people who live their lives in that temperature. These are oil-field workers in the friggin' Arctic Circle. I applaud these brave passengers for taking on 30 tons of flying metal on an icy Russian tarmac.

But I also don't understand.... My least favorite Thanksgiving guest, Winter Storm Cato, is currently dumping snow outside, and you'll be lucky if I leave the house to get items essential to life (i.e. toilet paper), much less push a frozen plane into mobility.

Images: Youtube/ Siberian Times