Airlines could start weighing passengers before boarding

[BUtterfield 8 41,819]

The initiative, which was outlined in a recent Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) advisory, strives to provide new data on average passenger weights as the current numbers reportedly don’t reflect today’s sky-high obesity rates in the US. In turn, this would help ensure aircrafts, especially the small ones, don’t exceed their allowable weight limit, View From the Wing reported.

To put it plane-ly, the FAA wants to gauge how much fatter Americans have gotten, to prevent things from coming apart when planes take to the skies.

The new mandates, which were reviewed by airline industry publication AirInsight Group, would require airlines to take surveys to establish “standard average passenger weights” for crew members, baggage and passengers via random selection, Fox reported.

Once they’ve chosen a traveler, an operator may “determine the actual weight of passengers” by having them step “on a scale before boarding the aircraft,” per the guidelines transcribed by AirInsight.

If that’s not an option, they’re urged to ask each passenger their weight, while making sure to add 10 pounds to account for clothing.

They even have a contingency plan for when operators suspect flyers are miscalculating their heft. In that case, crew members should “make a reasonable estimate about the passenger’s actual weight and add 10 pounds,” per the document.

Naturally, weighing people like luggage may seem a bit obtuse, which is why the FAA also provided guidelines on conducting the procedure in a way that protects passenger privacy.

They stipulate that “the scale readout should remain hidden from public view” while “an operator should ensure that any passenger weight data collected remains confidential.” Chalk one up for bedside manner.

Thankfully, travelers have the option of declining “to participate in any passenger or bag weight survey,” per the guidelines.

Source

[Pennywise 36,080]

Me: *innocently tries to board a plane*

Airlines:

[RAMROD 117,287]

I thot I was reading The Onion

[TimisaMonster 31,073]

The skinny legend in me remains unbothered 

[Kimmo 82,329]

Me after fastening for 30 days to make my flight:

[SharkmanthaC 115,068]

As an overweight person, I understand why they are doing this but don’t agree with the method. I can see this becoming a way to have a prejudice against people that appear overweight. And I understand that aircrafts have to have weight restrictions for safety reasons, but there should be a better way than making someone stand on a scale before they board the plane. (And their “randomly” selected is questionable.)

Spoiler

I probably won’t comment much more than this. Every time there is a thread about weight, there are some very rude things said and I don’t need that in my life right now. 

 

[Guest]

Sure but let me take off my clothes and pee first before you weigh me so you get an accurate weigh in.

[Mindblown 6,746]

My eating disorder coming back due to this:

[Bling 31,683]

Makes sense tbh. My flop Trump country still has yet to confront the obesity epidemic

[dynamite 66,892]

28 minutes ago, Agunimon said:

Sure but let me take off my clothes and pee first before you weigh me so you get an accurate weigh in.

I agree you should take your clothes off 

[tylerjs 6,096]

Maybe an alternative could be for passengers to enter their estimated weight when entering personal info during the ticket purchasing process. This way, the airlines not only have semi-fair estimates of total passenger weight for entire flights, but the process becomes inherently more private, and they can also choose which passengers to screen if necessary at the gate (if their estimated weight reaches a certain threshold, maybe). Alternatively to that, they could simply integrate scales into body scanners and just continue to privately view that information as they already do. 

[ProfessionalClown 10,647]

Demi rn