7ft tall athlete deemed too tall to fly

This is the moment armed police arrive on board a plane to haul a seven-foot (or 213cm, if you were born post-1980) volleyball player off a plane - for being too tall.

The uniformed officers have an animated conversation with the man, who clearly isn't too impressed about being unceremoniously hauled off.

Even sitting down, he's the same height as the cops, and when they eventually get him onto his feet, you really start to understand just how imposing his height is.

The fiasco started when flight attendants argued 20-year-old athlete Alexander Kimerov was blocking the aisle with his very long legs.

How bad could it be? Obese people can fly, after all. Babies are allowed on board. Plenty of people have flown with illnesses like stomach bugs. And there's no rule stopping people getting onto a plane if they haven't had a shower for the better part of a week.

In this case, however, things escalated pretty quickly.

Cabin crew ended up calling police to get him removed from the flight from Novy Urengoy, in Siberia, to the Russian capital Moscow, even though he's flown it before.

Of course, everyone else on the plane decided to pipe up as police ordered Kimerov to "behave like a man and vacate your seat".

Apparently, volleyball is huge in Russia, and the debacle has caused quite a stir since it was posted on social media.

Moscow Dynamo player Alexander Volkov expressed his shock at his fellow player's treatment, saying: "What's going on with this world, friends?

"A man is being taken off plane because of his height.

"And not just an ordinary man but a prominent sportsman who plays for Russia."