diff --git a/external/flume-sink/pom.xml b/external/flume-sink/pom.xml
index 2733ba2cbaad3..19192e40a7dc3 100644
--- a/external/flume-sink/pom.xml
+++ b/external/flume-sink/pom.xml
@@ -38,11 +38,31 @@
       <groupId>org.apache.flume</groupId>
       <artifactId>flume-ng-sdk</artifactId>
       <version>1.4.0</version>
+      <exclusions>
+        <exclusion>
+          <groupId>io.netty</groupId>
+          <artifactId>netty</artifactId>
+        </exclusion>
+        <exclusion>
+          <groupId>org.apache.thrift</groupId>
+          <artifactId>libthrift</artifactId>
+        </exclusion>
+      </exclusions>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>org.apache.flume</groupId>
       <artifactId>flume-ng-core</artifactId>
       <version>1.4.0</version>
+      <exclusions>
+        <exclusion>
+          <groupId>io.netty</groupId>
+          <artifactId>netty</artifactId>
+        </exclusion>
+        <exclusion>
+          <groupId>org.apache.thrift</groupId>
+          <artifactId>libthrift</artifactId>
+        </exclusion>
+    </exclusions>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>org.scala-lang</groupId>
@@ -53,6 +73,18 @@
       <artifactId>scalatest_${scala.binary.version}</artifactId>
       <scope>test</scope>
     </dependency>
+    <dependency>
+      <!--
+        Netty explicitly added in test as it has been excluded from
+        Flume dependency (to avoid runtime problems when running with
+        Spark) but unit tests need it. Version of Netty on which
+        Flume 1.4.0 depends on is "3.4.0.Final" .
+      -->
+      <groupId>io.netty</groupId>
+      <artifactId>netty</artifactId>
+      <version>3.4.0.Final</version>
+      <scope>test</scope>
+    </dependency>
   </dependencies>
   <build>
     <outputDirectory>target/scala-${scala.binary.version}/classes</outputDirectory>