Originally Posted by
Mint
A true story that I copied and pasted:
With so many dangers to commercial airliners, airlines have had to spring into action to prevent these dangers from compromising the safety of the passengers as well as the crew. Truly sadistic devices of terror such as iPods, laptop computers, and scientific calculators are common on commercial flights and have to be tightly regulated by the flight crew, as their use could result in disaster.
Sadly, there is an even greater danger to the safety of an airplane; one I was not aware of until a recent flight I was on during my vacation. It would appear that fat people crash planes.
My flights are normally non-stop, taking me pretty far from home, so I have grown accustomed to the larger aircraft commonly used in most domestic travel. This was the first time that I found myself traveling in one of the smaller aircraft used for short range flights.
The aircraft was most likely a smaller variant of the Boeing 737 or something similar. We didn�t board by a jet way, but by portable steps out on the tarmac. Our carry-on bags had to be checked as their was very little room in the overhead compartments for anything much larger than a purse or small bag. The plane featured a row of single seats down the left hand side, and a row of double seats down the right (This will come into play later).
Our flight was full, these planes don�t hold very many, and we watched as more and more people boarded the plane. Towards the end of the boarding, a very large gentleman stepped onto the plane. The man was about 5�10� and appeared to be in the neighborhood of 450lbs. or more. He wasn�t morbidly obese, but he was a really large fellow. A few people did a double take as he stepped on to the plane. It�s not very often you see a large man like that on a tiny plane like this. We all learned his name later as the events unfolded, but for the sake of this retelling we�ll call him Mr. McFattypants.
Mr. McFattypants began to work his way back towards his seat with much difficulty. The aisles in an airplane are pretty small, but in this plane they felt smaller than normal. He struggled to work his way back walking sideways while several people generously leaned away from the aisle to give the gentleman room to pass. When he found his seat, he squeezed into the double seat and pulled up the armrest in the middle as he was going to need both seats. Obviously, Mr. McFattypants had been forced by the airlines to purchase both seats for himself due to his girth as this is standard procedure now with most airlines.
Once he was in his seat, he started to fumble with the seatbelt. Apparently, the seatbelt wasn�t large enough to accommodate him. He called for the flight attendant as subtlety as possible and explained his situation. There was some discussion between them about how to work this out, and finally they decided on using one end from each of the seats and connecting them together to form one large seatbelt. It seemed to work alright and the flight attendant continued on. Mr. McFattypants, a touch embarrassed, did his best to become very interested in the airline shopping magazine that every plane has in the back of the seat.
Shortly before takeoff, the flight attendant announced that they were having some balancing trouble and they may need to ask some people to switch around seats to properly distribute weight in the craft. I had never heard of this before. It seems that in a small aircraft like that, it becomes very important to ensure that the aircraft�s weight is distributed as evenly as possible. I must admit, I wasn�t the only one who sensed what was coming.
The flight attendant asked a few people to switch seats and eventually came to Mr. McFattypants. She apologized and asked him if he could move just a few more rows closer to the back. He nodded and worked his way back a few rows.
The flight attendant returned to the front of the plane and a few minutes passed. She had a quick conversation with the crew in the flight deck and then returned to the rear of the plane and Mr. McFattypants. She once again apologized and asked if he could move over to the left side of the plane, in the row of single seats. He rose up and moved over to the other side with a worried look on his face. I believe we all realized that the single seat wasn�t going to work. Not to mention the fact that he had paid for two seats.
Predictably, the man just could not fit into the single seat. The armrests on the aisle side can not be folded up, so he tried to wedge himself in to no avail. At this point, Mr. McFattypants was very red and embarrassed. He stood in the aisle as the flight attendant returned to the flight deck. He cracked a few jokes about buying his 5 year old son a little toy plane like this one to go with his miniature Hummer power wheels vehicle. Several of the passengers chuckled with a forced laughter, doing their best to help him make light of the situation.
The flight attendant returned and informed him in a very loud voice that due to the weight distribution issues he would have to de-board the plane. She explained that the smaller aircraft was much more susceptible to turbulence and any improper balance could result in the crew losing control of the plane. Since the plane was full, and the fact that the right side of the plane already had more passengers than the left because of the seat layout, his weight prevented the plane from properly balancing. She explained that the airline would try to arrange another flight for him on a larger aircraft. This exchange was all said loud enough that I think the workers down on the tarmac could have heard it. I�m not sure if this was her way of making sure that everyone on the plane knew that the delay was not the airline�s fault, but Mr. McFattypants�s. Either way, every passenger began to feel this man�s embarrassment.
Mr. McFattypants asked a few questions, but never really got angry or lashed out at the flight attendant despite this total public humiliation. He collected up his small bag and did his best to work his way back up to the front of the plane without making eye contact with anyone. All of these events had carried on in total view of everyone on the plane. At first, the ordeal had been humorous to some, and I�m sure a few were figuring it was his own fault for being so large. But by this time, everyone felt sorry for Mr. McFattypants. No one wanted to see the man get humiliated like that. Many of the passengers were angry with the airline, wondering why they hadn�t quietly pulled him aside when the problem became apparent; or even better, informed him of a possible issue prior to boarding the plane. There was no need for the flight attendant to make this all as public as possible.
Mr. McFattypants opened our eyes to the sheer dangers that airliners face. The safety of millions of customers is at stake and this 450lb attempt at Gastro-Terrorism could not be allowed to succeed. Our world is now a safer place.