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Airline Begins Weighing Passengers For 'Safety'
New submitter Lopsemily writes to note that passengers on Uzbekistan Airways may face a new pre-flight check: In a recent statement, the country's flag carrier announced it will weigh passengers and their carry-on luggage prior to flights to determine how much weight they'll be adding to the plane. 'According to the rules of International Air Transport Association, airlines are obliged to carry out the regular procedures of preflight control passengers weighing with hand baggage to observe requirements for ensuring flight safety,' says the airline's statement.
Part of the problem is that airlines are cramming more seats into each plane. However the real limiting capacity for carrying people/cargo is not # of seats, its weight. Too heavy, then the plane needs extra runway to reach a higher speed just to get off the ground. Even if it does get off the ground, it may not stay that way for long if weight limits are exceeded.
Then there's the fact that we have more obese travelers. So yeah, not surprised its becoming more of a problem. And technically, weight and balance calculations are required before each flight.
And technically, weight and balance calculations are required before each flight.
Absolutely. Aircraft weight and balance is very important. These calculations also determine how much fuel to carry. Sometimes while in flight pilots will report unexpected fuel burn, difficulty climbing, that the plane is nose or tail heavy, and request an audit of what was loaded onto the plane (baggage/cargo). Also, if you've ever been on a plane that's relatively empty, you may notice flight attendants spreading out the passengers so that they all aren't in the front, or wherever.
Seriously, has this ever been a problem?
There have been a half-a-dozen incidents of planes overrunning runways on takeoff or otherwise crashing because of the difference between the expected average weight of passengers and their actual (obese) weight, most notably Obese passengers could have caused plane crash, May 2003, aka Air Midwest 5481.
Further reading: The true costs of heavier passengers: Part one
I remember a crash of a small twin engined turbo-prop, around 2006. The plane took off and crashed within seconds of take off, it just pitched up and up and up, stalled, rolled in and crashed into a hanger. The cause was the use of average weight for passengers to estimate the take off weight to set the elevator tabs. Compounded by unusual number of heavy bags. The plane was tail heavy, the center of gravity was beyond the allowable limits and the elevators could not generate enough aerodynamic force to pitch the plane down.
The captain of the plane, the leader of NTSB investigation team, the air traffic controller, the emergency crew leader that went into the wreckage looking for survivors, and the baggage handler who provided the clue that cracked the case were all women.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
I believe it is STILL FAIR to those with glandular conditions (I have to think this category is by far a small one and an exception to the rule)...in that this is based solely on how much it costs the airline in fuel, etc to carry that person. We're talking weight here, nothing else. For whatever reason the weight disparity...a smaller, lightweight person is cheaper to carry than a heavy one, just like a box of Kleenex is cheaper to transport than a gun safe.
Pure economics.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........