Cabin Crew Forbade Photo-Taking Of Unusual Solution

When passengers boarded a Vueling Airlines jet in Spain Sunday, they noticed something that made them do a classic double-take. All but three of the 32 seat rows on one side of the aircraft were cordoned off with tape.

A newspaper reporter from El Mundo was among those passengers, and reported the pilot informed anxious travelers almost half of the seats on their aircraft were not in service because of a safety issue -- but there was nothing to worry about.

"We will not be able to use that part of the plane because we have a safety problem with the door at the front. Don't worry, it's only a safety problem," the pilot said to passengers over the intercom, according to Reuters.

Some passengers became increasingly nervous -- one even asked flight attendants if the plane could stay level in the air with the lopsided weight. Some passengers tried to take pictures of the cordoned-off area, but were stopped by employees who informed them such a thing was against company policy.

The safety problem was with the emergency slide on one of the eight emergency exit doors, according to a Vueling spokeswoman. The carrier was following aviation rules that say it must reduce the number of passengers accordingly as the slide cannot be used in an emergency situation, she said.

Vueling operates a nearly-new fleet of Airbus A320s.

FMI: www.vueling.com/EN