Did fliers really get out and 'push' frozen Russian jetliner?

Video that appears to show passengers dislodging a frozen Russian plane is making the rounds on social media and in various news outlets.

In its report, The Associated Press writes the "Russian-made Tu-134 with 74 oil workers and seven crew members onboard was due to fly from the town of Igarka on Tuesday to Krasnoyarsk 800 miles to the south when the plane froze to the ground. It was -52 C (-61 F) outside and the passengers seemed desperate to get home."

The AFP news agency writes "Siberian air passengers had to get out and push their plane," adding that "the extraordinary story emerged after a passengerposted a video on YouTubeshowing a group of cheery travelers pushing the Tupolev plane on the snow-covered runway in Igarka, which is beyond the Arctic Circle."

The Guardian newspaper of London was among others to jump on the story, writing that "it might sound like a bad joke about budget flights but for passengers at a remote Siberian airport there was little to laugh about when they were asked to leave the plane in extreme cold weather and help push it along the tarmac."

But a report from Russia-centric website RT.com puts a somewhat different spin on the story.

RT's report does say the wheels of the UTair Tupolev Tu-134 were frozen to the ground at the airport, about 100 miles north of the Arctic Circle. However, RT suggests the video was more of a "selfie" photo-op than an actual effort to move the heavy aircraft.

RT says the charter flight's 74 passengers offered to exit the plane in an effort to lighten the aircraft as airport crews tried to get the plane headed toward the runway.

"The passengers disembarked to lighten the weight, and then they volunteered to move it," a spokeswoman for UTair tells RT.

RT adds that the director of the airport – whom RT did not identify by name – told RT he was doubtful that passengers would have been able to move the heavy aircraft. RT writes the airport director "added that it would be hard to reach its two-meter-high wings, and if you did manage, the cover and flaps could get damaged."

"The passengers … must have decided to make some sort of a 'selfie'. The joke proved right and became a good one in the internet," the airport director is quoted as saying by RT.

The plane did eventually take off from Igarka for the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk. As for the possibility of damaging the aircraft, Russian authorities say they've launched an investigation.

"They pushed the plane as if it was a car that had got stuck, which is categorically forbidden as it can damage the plane's exterior, for example," Oksana Gorbunova, a local prosecutor near the Igarka area, told Interfax, according to the Guardian.

"It would be funny if it didn't pose a horrendous threat," Gorbunova added to the Tass news agency, according to AP. "People could have damaged the aircraft skin and the flaps."

And, the AP report also appears to suggest the UTair passengers' effort to "push" may have been more cosmetic than functional.

In its version of the story, AP cites Gorbunova in saying that the passengers were asked to leave the aircraft when it got stuck. Then, some of those passengers left the bus that they were taken to "and tried to help move" the jet once a tug arrive to tow it.

"The plane was towed, of course, because it would be physically impossible for people (to move it)," Gorbunova is quoted as saying by AP.

Regardless of the precise details, the video has been a hit on the Web.