News If you are Overweight or Obese, you should start loosing weight if you want to get on a flight.

[Amol S.]

The FAA made a statement to airlines, stating they want airlines to weigh passengers before letting them board the aircraft. If the passenger is overweight or obese, they should not be allowed to board the aircraft, as the FAA reports that such people in large numbers could cause the plane to become dangerously overweight and could make the flight and persons on board at risk.

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www.whec.com

Airlines could start weighing passengers before boarding

Airlines could soon require plus-sized passengers to step on the scale — or provide their weight — before boarding the aircraft.

nypost.com

FAA Aircraft Overload Concerns, May Start to Weigh Passengers by the Gate, Not Just Cargo and Bags

The FAA does not want to be discriminating on weight, but concerns for Aircraft Overloading may endanger the entire flight.

www.techtimes.com

 

[Fenixgoon]

Weight distribution on an aircraft is a legitimate safety issue. And Americans are getting fatter.

Is it good policy? From a PR perspective, probably not, but I get it.

If anything it is an indictment of our country - our society is literally unable to keep people healthy enough to fly, lest the plane get set off balance.

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

Weighing passengers beforehand is definitely not feasible. Maybe folks can enter in their weight online before the flight and hope they tell the truth?

Ultimately the bigger problem is people having to sit next to people where their fat blobs go over into other people's seats. That's both disgusting and shouldn't be allowed. Buy 2 seats or pay for first class for th extra room there. Weight wouldn't be a problem or concern if they were required to buy 2 seats.

 

[brycejones]

Op good luck in your job search!

 

[Amol S.]

Weighing passengers beforehand is definitely not feasible. Maybe folks can enter in their weight online before the flight and hope they tell the truth?

Ultimately the bigger problem is people having to sit next to people where their fat blobs go over into other people's seats. That's both disgusting and shouldn't be allowed. Buy 2 seats or pay for first class for th extra room there. Weight wouldn't be a problem or concern if they were required to buy 2 seats.

How can weighing passengers before hand not be feasible, if it is possible to weigh baggage before it enters the aircraft. In regards to the size of the person, what about muscular people with their big fat arms hitting shoulders of others? Not everyone can afford to buy to aircraft seat.

 

[Amol S.]

Op good luck in your job search!

Thank you, am currently getting calls from recruiters, but all of them want me to relocate after everything opens up. Currently I am only open to NYC.

 

[MtnMan]

Just measure how wide they are.

Had an aisle seat, middle seater was morbidly obese. Flying out of Tampa, in the summer, and he is sweating like a pig (apologies to pigs). He was so big he had to get the seatbelt extender from the flight attendant, the ones they used to demonstrate how the buckle works, are also for obese passengers.

Put his stuff in the overhead, I stood, so he could get in, and the first thing he did was raise the armrest and took about 1/3 of my seat. I put the armrest down, and sat down. He tried to raise it and I made it clear that wasn't happening.

He buzzed for a flight attendant to complain, that he needed the room. I just explained that is not my problem. The plane was full, so there was no reassigning seats. At least it wasn't a cross-country flight, only to Atlanta.

He wasn't a bad person, but I'll be damn if I am going to spend 2+ hours stuck to the side of a fat man whose sweat had soaked his cloths.

My point if they are too wide, require them to book first class, or pay for 2 seats.

 

[Roger Wilco]

Losing. Losing has one “o” ffs.

How does one “loose weight?” Do they rip off autonomous chunks of their own fat and release them into the wild or something?

 

[MtnMan]

Losing. Losing has one “o” ffs.

How does one “loose weight?” Do they rip off autonomous chunks of their own fat and release them into the wild or something?

It's often 'loose' in that it tends to move around freely when they move.... just saying

 

[Zorba]

I don't remember the exact numbers, but the FAA published weights for Americans are something like:

170 for men, 140 for women, and 60 for kids. I doubt those lead to very accurate estimates.

 

[Fenixgoon]

I don't remember the exact numbers, but the FAA published weights for Americans are something like:

170 for men, 140 for women, and 60 for kids. I doubt those lead to very accurate estimates.

198 and 170 for men/women according to this end of 2018 article

https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/20/health/us-average-height-weight-report

 

[Zorba]

198 and 170 for men/women according to this end of 2018 article

https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/20/health/us-average-height-weight-report

So an under estimate of ~20# per person, about 4,000 pounds with 200 seats. That's enough to extend the takeoff roll.

 

[Sunburn74]

I am perfectly ok with this. There honestly aren't enough social consequences for people's bad habits and its society left to pick up the check. A little public embarassment isn't the end of the world and probably will motivate a few people to finally do something and get in shape.

 

[MrSquished]

The less Trumphumpers from the south can travel the better it is for the rest of us.

 

[feralkid]

A little public embarassment isn't the end of the world and probably will motivate a few people to finally do something and get in shape.

Yeah, that will work.

I once publicly called someone an idiot; he felt so embarrassed he immediately went for a PhD.

 

[darkswordsman17]

I am perfectly ok with this. There honestly aren't enough social consequences for people's bad habits and its society left to pick up the check. A little public embarassment isn't the end of the world and probably will motivate a few people to finally do something and get in shape.

If you think fat shaming people is going to get them to lose weight you really don't understand the psychological ramifications of doing so.

 

[pmv]

Just measure how wide they are.

Had an aisle seat, middle seater was morbidly obese. Flying out of Tampa, in the summer, and he is sweating like a pig (apologies to pigs). He was so big he had to get the seatbelt extender from the flight attendant, the ones they used to demonstrate how the buckle works, are also for obese passengers.

Put his stuff in the overhead, I stood, so he could get in, and the first thing he did was raise the armrest and took about 1/3 of my seat. I put the armrest down, and sat down. He tried to raise it and I made it clear that wasn't happening.

He buzzed for a flight attendant to complain, that he needed the room. I just explained that is not my problem. The plane was full, so there was no reassigning seats. At least it wasn't a cross-country flight, only to Atlanta.

He wasn't a bad person, but I'll be damn if I am going to spend 2+ hours stuck to the side of a fat man whose sweat had soaked his cloths.

My point if they are too wide, require them to book first class, or pay for 2 seats.

Really can't argue with your final conclusion there...but it seems rough if someone oversized has a really unavoidable, desperate, need to fly somewhere.

It's a different issue to the OP articles though, because that's about weight and thus the safety of the aircraft. Doesn't sound like a social policy, so much as just an unavoidable practical one. You need to know how much weight you are carrying before you try to take off to fly somewhere.
The logic of it, though, is surely that men should on average pay more to fly than women, and Europeans more than Asians. I wonder if that would be as accepted as the notion of charging more for the obese?

Mainly I just think this a design flaw with the US. You built a country that is dependent on air travel. Not sure how you deal with these issues, given that underlying problem.

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

How can weighing passengers before hand not be feasible, if it is possible to weigh baggage before it enters the aircraft. In regards to the size of the person, what about muscular people with their big fat arms hitting shoulders of others? Not everyone can afford to buy to aircraft seat.

We can't even board the plane and scan tickets in a reasonable time, what do you think manually weighing everyone beforehand is going to do?

 

[woolfe9998]

We can't even board the plane and scan tickets in a reasonable time, what do you think manually weighing everyone beforehand is going to do?

You know that thing you have to stand in that scans your whole body? Suppose you were also standing on a scale. Then it would take zero extra time.

 

[MtnMan]

Really can't argue with your final conclusion there...but it seems rough if someone oversized has a really unavoidable, desperate, need to fly somewhere.

It's a different issue to the OP articles though, because that's about weight and thus the safety of the aircraft. Doesn't sound like a social policy, so much as just an unavoidable practical one. You need to know how much weight you are carrying before you try to take off to fly somewhere.
The logic of it, though, is surely that men should on average pay more to fly than women, and Europeans more than Asians. I wonder if that would be as accepted as the notion of charging more for the obese?

Mainly I just think this a design flaw with the US. You built a country that is dependent on air travel. Not sure how you deal with these issues, given that underlying problem.

This was probably in the early to mid 90s, and I'm sure the airlines have shrunk the seats and legroom multiple times since then. I'm 6'1" 190, and they were uncomfortable tight then.

The last time I flew was about 2 weeks before 9/11, and I have absolutely no intention of ever getting on a plane again. In the 80s and 90s I flew a lot, and then we were treated like cattle. My impression is that it's only worse now.

 

[Thump553]

This was probably in the early to mid 90s, and I'm sure the airlines have shrunk the seats and legroom multiple times since then. I'm 6'1" 190, and they were uncomfortable tight then.

The last time I flew was about 2 weeks before 9/11, and I have absolutely no intention of ever getting on a plane again. In the 80s and 90s I flew a lot, and then we were treated like cattle. My impression is that it's only worse now.

Totally agree. My father flew at least monthly throughout the sixties and seventies, flew for a hobby (as did I) and I flew regularly through roughly the same time period as you. One of my fondest childhood memories was the pilot giving me a tour of the cockpit during the sixties when I was a kid (way before hijackings). I love flying and I detest airline flying, which to me is greyhound buses in the sky but less appealing. I will fly now but frankly I would probably elect a bus or train trip over it.

Passenger weight is important to safety and weigh ins should be mandatory. I remember at one point the airlines had a sample seat at check-in-if you didn't fit you either upgraded or didn't fly. But no way they should deny access based on weight-but just like we pay by weight for shipping a package the same should be true for people. If collectively the passenger weight is too much, leave some freight behind.

 

[trenchfoot]

Smaller puddle jumpers and such are much more sensitive to weight distribution and AUW in the aircraft, so proportionally and practically speaking, larger airframes have the same issues.

Other factors of concern is profitability and aircraft design. Cramming seats for max profits is of course a top priority for airlines where stretching the boundaries of safety and comfort is taken for granted in order to attain favorable ROI.

This issue with "overweight" passengers could easily be accomodated design-wise by having, shall we say, "fat seats" with the same proportional amount of "discomfort" that "normal" people experience flying coach, along with other seats that accomodate folks who are much taller than "normal", but that would cut into profits and we can't have that now can we?

Much easier and profitable for the airlines to have the "normal" size passengers suffer the experience of having to sit for hours next to a person whose girth exceeds the design parameters of the preferred max-profit seating arrangement.

 

[Fenixgoon]

I am perfectly ok with this. There honestly aren't enough social consequences for people's bad habits and its society left to pick up the check. A little public embarassment isn't the end of the world and probably will motivate a few people to finally do something and get in shape.

I know there's a lot of fat shaming in the world. I could absolutely see people arguing that's all this thread really is.

There are already plenty of social consequences and health implications for being fat. I don't think adding another disincentive is going to actually "help" anyone.
Sure, there might be a handful of people who have a come-to-jesus moment, but on the society level this isn't going to make us all healthier. It's just going to add a lot of embarrassment and trauma.

(Though the laws of physics don't particularly care about that).

Offhand, I don't have any good commentary on a solution.

 

[ch33zw1z]

Bus and train companies rejoice at the news. But seriously, time to get out and lose those pandemic pounds America

 

[purbeast0]

This issue with "overweight" passengers could easily be accomodated design-wise by having, shall we say, "fat seats" with the same proportional amount of "discomfort" that "normal" people experience flying coach, along with other seats that accomodate folks who are much taller than "normal", but that would cut into profits and we can't have that now can we?

They do have them. It's called first class. 2 seats where 3 seats normally fit.