I wouldn’t call a 175 LB man heavy. American Airlines kicked a man to lighten the load.
http://www.foxnews.com/travel/2016/02/29/175lbs-passenger-removed-from-flight-for-being-too-heavy/
Interesting! I’ve seen some folks on recent flights who were definitely far in excess of 175 LB
But teem,ver…this is Fox News.
There has to be more to this story.
The title of this thread is misleading. He wasnt kicked off due to his weight, he was kicked off because he was one of two last passengers that boarded. If he had weighed 165 he still wouldve been kicked off. I have been on flights that were deemed too heavy, so it does occur.
@Iglooo. Did you read the story? HE wasn’t too heavy. The plane was. Since no one voluntarily deplaned they kicked off the last two passengers who boarded. SOMEODY had to lighten the load.
On my way to Orlando in December we sat for twenty minutes because no one would move to allow a mom and her preschooler to have adjacent seats. There were several isolated single seats Finally they the pilot threatened to remove someone from the plane if no one moved.
How can the plane too heavy to take off? Aren’t they made to take off with full load? O Does this mean on this plane there were mostly overweight people?
It especially happens in the summer- something about lift. I have been on several when we were kicked off. (I weight 100). What I do not understand is why they do not take the luggage off and keep the people on? I have had my luggage go and not me.
Heat, altitude, and humidity. Any of those can reduce capacity at takeoff.
The smaller planes are apparently more sensitive to the load of passengers and baggage and how they are distributed.
Late check in does increase the risk of involuntary denied boarding for whatever reason. It does seem odd, though, since airlines like American might be expected to choose based on frequent flyer status (i.e. kick off the latest check in passengers who are not members of its frequent flyer program at all) rather than kick off someone with platinum status (the tiers are non-member, member, gold (25,000 miles per year), platinum (50,000 miles per year), executive (100,000 miles per year)).
"How can the plane too heavy to take off? Aren’t they made to take off with full load? O Does this mean on this plane there were mostly overweight people?’
Cargo. My guess is it’s quicker and easier to take people off than reach back into the cargo hold. We need @busdriver11 to weigh in on this dynamic re: weight and people or cargo.
Does seem very strange to kick off a platinum passenger. My guess is that was an error by the flight/gate crew.
I would think they design with the worst case in mind for max capacity and sell tickets according not the other way around, sell as many tickets as possible and then kick ticketed passengers off the plane?
An airplane is going to have a maximum takeoff weight based on the conditions of the flight on that day/time/departure airport/destination airport. That weight is going to include a combination of fuel required, passengers, and baggage. There are any number of occurrences that can and do force changes to that combination of fuel/pax/baggage equation, especially if the aircraft in question is a (relatively) smaller regional jet.
My family (myself, Mrs Wolverine, toddler, and 2 infants) were bumped off of a regional jet when they had to put additional fuel onboard to account for deteriorating weather at the planned destination airport in the event they had to do extended holding or divert to an airport farther away than initially intended. Our luggage went on with the original flight and we had to track it down later when we eventually made it to our planned destination.
As someone else mentioned above, it is indeed easier to quickly fix the weight issue by removing passengers as opposed to luggage.
It happens all the time. Must’ve been a slow news day. :))
I’ve been on tiny planes (Cape Air to St. Thomas) where they spend a lot of time balancing loads. One year our suitcases came in on another flight because they were deemed too heavy. It was really annoying, but less annoying than not flying ourselves.
@mathmom … That’s very common as well. Generally, the smaller the airplane is the more sensitive it is to weight and balance issues. It can be a touchy subject sometimes when you try to get “more robust” sized individuals to sit in certain seats to optimize the aircraft’s center of gravity.
As someone who weighs 172 lbs. (and I don’t look it AT ALL) and 6 ft 1, this article scared me for a moment. But yeah, I doubt it was because he weighed too much, but rather the plane as a whole was too heavy. I know that airplanes will generally sell tickets for maximum capacity with the expectation that someone will not show up, cancel etc. However, sometimes everybody decides to show up on time, then the weather changes, and the plane is suddenly too heavy to make it all the way. I think he did make a mistake by not taking the voucher though, but they should have tried to move him onto a following flight a few hours later.
We have to take smaller planes from major hubs to our home state and have been on some where the flight crew had to move people around inside to balance the overall weight distribution and one time our family’s luggage (six full bags in the days when you could each carry two 70 pounders) got bumped to a later flight so that a passenger’s heavy electric wheelchair could be put on board. I agree, must have been a slow news day.
Total clickbait and inaccurate, misleading headline.
Huh? The reason he was asked to deplane had nothing to do with his being “too heavy.” The aircraft was over its weight limit and had to be reduced. It happens fairly often on regional carriers, especially if weather or delays dictate taking on more fuel than expected. When no one volunteered, he was asked to deplane because he was one of the LAST TO CHECK IN. How is this “news”? Complete rubbish.
“How can the plane too heavy to take off? Aren’t they made to take off with full load? O Does this mean on this plane there were mostly overweight people?”
The luggage is the wild card. Someone could walk up, pay extra fee charges and check extra bags and then the flight is too heavy.
On my last flight to CDG last fall, My traveling companion and I checked in 10 bags (and paid $600), of which 6 weighed 70 pounds. They had no idea til we checked in that we would have that much luggage. Now, this is a huge aircraft so it doesn’t much matter, but a smaller flight / puddle jumper? That would make quite a difference.
The accompanying photo shows a good-sized airplane. I guess it’s a random airplane not the airplane in the story.
@Iglooo … You’re correct. The article states that it was a regional jet (Envoy) operating on the flight in question.