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+--- Thread: Hawaiian Air weighs Samoans before they board! (/showthread.php?tid=17690)
Hawaiian Air weighs Samoans before they board! - Cagary - 10-05-2016
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/news/hawaiian-airlines-policy-weighing-passengers-american-samoa/
-Veritas odium parit”(Terence 195–159 BC))-"Truth begets hatred".
RE: Hawaiian Air weighs Samoans before they board! - Justin - 10-05-2016
For decades I've advocated charging for the total weight of the passenger and his/her luggage.
RE: Hawaiian Air weighs Samoans before they board! - HereOnThePrimalEdge - 10-05-2016
It's critical that the weight in a plane is balanced. Even the containers in the cargo hold are distributed in a way that evenly adjusts the load. I've seen pallets of white bread that barely break a couple hundred pounds, versus a container of noni juice topping out at 2800+ pounds, both with the same dimensions.
A lot of families fly between Honolulu and America Samoa. I would estimate there are more children on that flight than average (just a guess). Three kids on one side of the aisle might total 100 pounds, three adults on the other side could approach 1000 pounds.
I've been on the flight. Hypothetically it does sound like a good idea to weigh passengers and assign seats in an effort to provide additional safety. Of course, once the plane levels off at 35,000 feet that plan and seating chart go right out the window (figuratively), when people jam the aisle to move around and visit with friends they haven't seen for awhile. Cruising altitude doesn't just refer to the plane, it includes the passengers who move around the cabin like they're at a Grateful Dead concert during the break between sets, with festival seating. Don't expect to get to the rest room for the next 4 or 5 hours.
RE: Hawaiian Air weighs Samoans before they board! - ericlp - 10-05-2016
It's all fine and dandy....till they start charging double for say anyone over 250 lbs.
RE: Hawaiian Air weighs Samoans before they board! - birdmove - 10-05-2016
I worked as a ramp service man for Flying Tiger Lines for 5 years at the end of the 1970's and early 1980's. It was an all cargo airline. There were people that worked in the office that figured out the load distribution. We had DC-8's and 747's. The 747's were said to be able to carry 250,000 pounds. They carried 29 positions topside, plus shorter pallets and containers in the power bellies, and in L belly (all the way aft) there was a large compartment where freight was hand stacked.
The containers, we called huts,or igloos, and the loaded pallets were built up and weighed. All the unit numbers, weights, and whether or not there might be magnetic items, restricted, etc, were taken into the office. They would run the numbers and come up with where each pallet of igloo went. The DC-8's had four bellies where hand stacked freight went. The, we'd load the aircraft. Once in a while there might be, say, igloo numbers that were very similiar. Such as SAA 4920, and SAA 4290 or something. Someone running the transporters that were first to look four and grab the numbered unit sometimes would accidently grab the wrong one. The units went from the transporters, to the topside (or, in the case of the 747's, topside or belly loaders) loding machines, then to the crew working the topside. The unit numbers were to be confirmed at each stage I mentioned.
Very rarely, a unit might get by all the checkers. I heard about once when a guy I worked with was the guy in charge of the topside crew, let the a unit with the wrong number go into the topside of a DC-8, get locked down in place, and the cargo door closed up. The plane took off out of SeaTac Airort that way. The pilots knew something was wrong when the nose of the plane wanted to rise up on it's own. The bigger problem came when it went to land. Probably to ORD/Chicago, as that was our hub. I think the pilots soiled their undies fighting to get the nose down for that landing. They did it.
A unit with the wrong unit number was loaded towards the rear of the plane, and the weight was several thousand pound to heavy.
This all happened before I worked there. The guy who was responsible for the error was named Mike. I knew Mike as one VERY hard working dude, and a great employee. His job, and his vocation, were spared by the company, and he went on and worked there for many years.
They later bought out Seaboard World Airlines, just to obtain the routes in Europe, and that caused them to be way overextended and a ton of layoffs happened, including mine. Then years later, FedEx bought out Flying Tigers, and they informed all the Tigers people that, they could stay on and work for Fedex, but that they would lose one half of their seniority. I heard a good number of the Tigers people quit over that. Too bad for Fedex, because they lost some great people. My layoff, and about 25 others from SeaTac, was about 1986 or 1987.
Now, you know way more than you wanted to about airplanes, cargo, FTL and Fedex.
Jon in Keaau/HPP
RE: Hawaiian Air weighs Samoans before they board! - 1voyager1 - 10-05-2016
I have had the misfortune of being seated next to a very large person of Polynesian descent, that overflowed their seat into almost half of each of the adjacent seats, one of which was mine.
It was the longest, most uncomfortable flight I have ever been on, including one where I laid on top of the gear for a very rough fly-in glacier trip.
I think large passengers should have their width measured and those over the width of the seat should be required to purchase 2 or 3 seats as required.
Plus a further digression:
Speaking of Flying Tiger Lines, I had a "friend" that worked for them through much of the '70s and at least into the '80s. He was a Poly-Sci major that went to work for them and spent all his time in Thailand. To this day, I still wonder who he was really working for. I never asked. He never offered.