'Drunk' Russian orchestra thrown off plane in US

Members of a Russian orchestra were ordered off a US plane after complaints they were drunk and disorderly.

About 100 members of the St Petersburg Philharmonic were taken off the United Airlines flight at Washington's Dulles airport.

They were on the first leg of a journey from Amsterdam to LA.

United Airlines flight 947 sat at its gate at Dulles for about 90 minutes after it was scheduled to take off for the second journey's leg while airline staff tried to make the musicians behave, the Washington Post reports.

An airline spokeswoman said: "The group was misbehaving, inebriated, opening their own bottles of alcohol, rowdy and non-responsive to the crew."

The orchestra was traveling to a performance at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

The group had to find accommodation in Washington DC and United officials agreed to book the group on flights leaving for Los Angeles on Tuesday.

An orchestra spokesman couldn't be reached for comment.