"Safety board wants airline passengers weighed"
 

[Not directly low carb, but this is bound to be a sensitive issue for many on this board. - gotbeer]

Safety board wants airline passengers weighed

Friday, February 27, 2004 Posted: 10:56 AM EST (1556 GMT)

http://www.cnn.com/2004/TRAVEL/02/2...t.ap/index.html

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Air travel would be safer if airlines weighed their passengers from time to time to make sure they know how much weight their planes are carrying, the National Transportation Safety Board says.

Following its investigation into a commuter plane crash last year in North Carolina, the NTSB said on Thursday that airlines should at least periodically make passengers step on a scale.

The safety board also recommended the Federal Aviation Administration require improvements to training, oversight and procedures for maintenance personnel.

The crash of US Airways Express Flight 5481 at Charlotte-Douglas Airport killed 21 people, the deadliest U.S. aviation accident in nearly 2 1/2 years.

The Beech 1900, operated by Air Midwest, was virtually uncontrollable because of two fatal mistakes, the safety board concluded.

First, the airline's guidelines for estimating the weight of passengers and baggage were inaccurate. The pilots, therefore, didn't realize the plane's rear section was too heavy.

Second, mechanics had improperly rigged cables connected to the elevator, the tail flap that controls the up-and-down direction of the aircraft's nose. The errors meant the elevator's downward motion was restricted to half its normal range, according to the NTSB.

Without a fully maneuverable elevator, the pilots couldn't force the nose of the plane down to compensate for its heavy tail, investigators said.

As a result, the plane pitched sharply upward just seconds after takeoff for Greer, South Carolina, then fell from the sky.

Soon afterward, the FAA ordered airlines to weigh some of their passengers to determine the accuracy of current guidelines -- for example, adults in winter were calculated to weigh 185 pounds on average.

The survey showed what many suspected: Passengers and their bags had gotten heavier. The FAA issued temporary guidelines adding up to 10 pounds to its estimate for passengers and 5 pounds to checked luggage.

Weight and balance issues

The NTSB said those guidelines don't go far enough. The board recommended the FAA require airlines operating planes with 10 or more seats to weigh passengers periodically to determine when they might be heavier -- for example, in December when they wear heavy coats and carry presents.

The FAA is working on that. Since June, a committee has been examining the average weights of passengers and baggage and how they vary according to season or geography.

Debby McElroy, Regional Airline Association president, said her group is working with the FAA on the weight and balance issues identified by the NTSB.

"We agree that further study is necessary, to ensure that air carrier weight and balance programs provide the highest level of safety," McElroy said.

The committee is expected to make recommendations next month.

NTSB investigators also found flaws in the way mechanics were trained and supervised, how their work was checked and how Air Midwest controlled the quality of its maintenance. Those problems led to the improperly rigged elevator cables on the Charlotte flight.

As part of a series of recommendations on maintenance, the NTSB said the FAA should require that work on key flight control systems, including elevator cables, be checked upon completion.

FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown said the agency already is working on the issues raised by the investigation.

Two Democratic members of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, James Oberstar of Wisconsin and Peter DeFazio of Oregon, asked the Transportation Department's inspector general to report on whether outsourced maintenance work affects airline safety.

Air Midwest contracted maintenance to Raytheon Aerospace (now known as Vertex Aerospace), which hired mechanics from Structural Modification and Repair Technicians Inc.

Oh THIS is going to go over well! LOL

I'm all for it . A double check on the mechanics should have always been in place. Why wasn't that the HEADLINE.

OK I vented.
Now an accurate knowledge of the weight carried seems reasonable to me.Airlines should not be allowed to squeeze in those extra seats-it throws off the weight per space to unsave levels.

I'd rather step on a scale than crash! I assume they will do it privately and won't shout our weight out to the entire terminal.

Icky. I still have haunting memories of when I was a kid going to Six Flags where they have those booths with the scales.. Ya know, where they weigh you and if they can't guess within 5 pounds either way you get a prize..

Well, I jumped on one of those things when I was 12. TWELVE. The chick guessed 135. Okay... came up 163 and she was like, "Oh my god..." And looked really appalled.

So public weighings.. not working for me.

I've never really had a problem with weighing in public as long as it wasn't in school. I got enough taunting there. I weighed on the scale at the County Fair at Age 13 and it said 155. But, I'd just eaten alot of Cotton Candy and it was Afternoon and I had my Clothes on. So, my weight was probably closer to 145, which is what is about where I'd figured it at: 135-145. In [parenthesis is 75th Percentile, which is about what I was height-wise]:

Age 0 -- 10 (?)
Age 5 -- 45 (45)
Age 11 -- 95 (105)
Age 12 -- 125 (120)
Age 13 -- 145 (135)
Age 14 -- 190 (145)
Age 15 -- 168 (160)
Age 16 -- 219 (170)
Age 17 -- 289 (175)
Age 18 -- 278 (180)
Age 19 -- 283
Age 20 -- 320/330
Age 21 -- 239
Age 22 -- Hope to Be 190

http://www.halls.md/chart/boys-weight-w.htm

Well, you know
 

I might be a bit naive, but I am wondering why the airlines didn't already do this sort of stuff. Wouldn't have to be embassing or anything, because cattle are weighed by walking onto a scale that is basically part of the floor. And the sell cattle by the pound. They don't have to stand still or anything, so basically, they could put this in the floor and measure weights of all the cargo and they walk onto the plane, then the pilot could have a total cargo weight before they depart.

Later,
wsgts

:lol: Like the cattle analogy!

Jen

Indeed very apt :)

You know
 

I sort of feel like cattle being herded onto planes!!

Later,
wsgts

Well, if we are what we eat, I say, Mooooooo.