Terrified passengers told to balance plane

[Slats7]

Terrified passengers told to balance plane | Travel News | News.com.au

PASSENGERS have revealed their horror at being told to sit at the back of a plane to balance it out.


Terrified by the request, 71 tourists refused to board the Thomas Cook flight from Majorca, in the Mediterranean, to Newcastle, UK.

 

[oz_mark]

Hmm, I have been asked (along with others around me) to move seats to balance a plane. None of us were particulalry terrified by the request!

 

[Slats7]

Just another slow news day.

 

[oz_mark]

At least its a diversion from car dealers.

 

[simongr]

I thought it happened midflight... guess they have never flown in a Dash8...

 

[dede]

Yet another "news" story from Uncle Rupert's news.com.au which this forum seems to get reports from on a regular basis.

 

[Dave Noble]

Predictably most posts attacking the news agency and ignoring the articles itself

This has been reported reasonable widely here in UK and is of relevence in news. It is definitely not the norm for a high percentage of people to refuse to board a plane or that they disembarked rather than fly on a plane with a faulty hold door ( which sounds like it may have been a major factor in the passengers concerns )


Dave

 

[simongr]

Predictably most posts attacking the news agency and ignoring the articles itself

This has been reported reasonable widely here in UK and is of relevence in news. It is definitely not the norm for a high percentage of people to refuse to board a plane or that they disembarked rather than fly on a plane with a faulty hold door ( which sounds like it may have been a major factor in the passengers concerns )


Dave

Given that the article doesnt talk about the concerns of people about the hold door and focuses on the reports of pax disembarking saying it was the worst flight ever I think it is fair to critique the report as lacking substance.

The fact that it is getting wide coverage in the UK and thus more information is available is irrelevant in assessing whether this is news in Australia.

 

[Dave Noble]

Given that the article doesnt talk about the concerns of people about the hold door and focuses on the reports of pax disembarking saying it was the worst flight ever I think it is fair to critique the report as lacking substance.
.

Yes it does.

“When people are getting off the plane saying, 'Don't get on' and we'd been told there was a fault with it, there was no way we would get on. It's just not worth the risk.”

70+ passengers refusing to board a plane which had a bunch of very scared arriving passengers onboard telling people not to board would seem extremely out of the ordinary and quite newsworthy

Critiqueing that there may be some substance missing is not the same as deriding news.com.au for reporting events or comments such as "slow news day" which seems to be becoming the norm

Dave

 

[dajop]

It may indeed be newsworthy, but it is typical of nonews to over sensationalise the issue.

There is no need for a headline "terrified passengers" AND "horror". The airline industry is struggling enough without the nonews crusade that appears to portray every slightest hiccup as horrific and that doomsday is nearly upon us. Hence a comment has been made by one person, in the comments section after the article:

oh my god! There have been so many instances of things going wrong in the air, its just not worth it anymore, no way will I ever sit in on one unless im heavily sedated

It is worth contrasting the nonews report to the BBC online report on the matter: Passengers asked to balance plane. Much more restrained, and the spin is quite at odds to the spin on the nonews report. Also contrast the editing of the airline comment. According to BBC (and even the Daily Mail report, where news sourced the article):

Thomas Cook said: 'It is standard for all airlines to ensure cargo and passengers are evenly distributed, and there will be times when passengers will be asked to move to the front or back of a plane.
'This is a routine industry procedure and poses no safety issue.'

has been edited with a different, less technical spin:

The airline insisted that reallocating seats is a routine procedure to balance planes.

Phrasing with an undercurrent .... that's what the airline "insisted" but deep down we all know better not to trust them.

In short, still think it is nonews drivel.

 

[russ]

Oh, another media bashing thread!

(Is that three or four this week?)

 

[whereishome]

Yeah, but then read the article and find out it's sourced from the Daily Mail - hardly a bastion of journalistic integrity that NEVER resorts to sensationalism.

Particularly like the bit about the airline "insisting" that it's a standard procedure. Like the bloody Mail can speak from it's years of experience in airside operations that asking passengers to move to balance the plane is an extremely unorthodox practice that shonky airlines use to stop planes from exploding.

 

[medhead]

This story just proves what I've always known - the poms need to harden up.

Fly enough on little aircraft and you will get these requests. I've been aqsked to exit from the rear of the aircraft first due to a extra luggage load. I didn't get off and tell people there is a fault with the aircraft.

 

[simongr]

Yes it does.

Dave

No it doesn't.

This is what it says specifically about passenger fears:

PASSENGERS have revealed their horror at being told to sit at the back of a plane to balance it out.

Terrified by the request, 71 tourists refused to board the Thomas Cook flight from Majorca, in the Mediterranean, to Newcastle, UK.

The reference to the hold door does not then have passenger fear comments. The passenger fear comments relate to the looks of fear and comments from other passengers.

I actually think this is a bit of a big deal for the UK but this is not news for Oz and looks like another opportunity for the press to hound the airlines.

 

[Dave Noble]

Oh, another media bashing thread!

(Is that three or four this week?)

Depends. Has there been 3 or has there been 4 media reports posted in the forum?

 

[harvyk]

+1 for nonews over doing it...

I've been on a few planes (ok it's rare) where they have asked pax to sit in certain seats and not change because of balancing issues.

Also russ, the reason why there are media bashing threads is because the media publish a lot of cough, which most of us here know is cough because quite a few of us have experienced the (non) event which the media has made sensationalist.

 

[JohnK]

I've been on a few planes (ok it's rare) where they have asked pax to sit in certain seats and not change because of balancing issues.

Admittedly I have not travelled as much as some of the people on AFF but I cannot remember a flight where I have been told I have to stay put in my seat and cannot move for the entire flight. I do remember though being asked to remain in allocated seat for take-off and landing.

 

[oz_mark]

Admittedly I have not travelled as much as some of the people on AFF but I cannot remember a flight where I have been told I have to stay put in my seat and cannot move for the entire flight. I do remember though being asked to remain in allocated seat for take-off and landing.

I believe it is more critical or take-off and landing. Normally, however, the weight distribution is sorted out when the seats are originally assigned, and your average passenger doesn't know anything about it.

In this cae, I guess if they had known before hand, then everyone would have been assigned seats at the back of the plane. So the passengers were asked to move and some didn't like it, but in the circumstances what was the airline to do?

I'd be interested in knowing what the problem with the inbound light was@

 

[Dave Noble]

Admittedly I have not travelled as much as some of the people on AFF but I cannot remember a flight where I have been told I have to stay put in my seat and cannot move for the entire flight. I do remember though being asked to remain in allocated seat for take-off and landing.

On Jetstar International I have heard them tell passengers to stay in their allocated seats and not to just move to another seat

Dave

 

[harvyk]

Admittedly I have not travelled as much as some of the people on AFF but I cannot remember a flight where I have been told I have to stay put in my seat and cannot move for the entire flight. I do remember though being asked to remain in allocated seat for take-off and landing.

Haven't been told not to move around the cabin at all, but I have been on a flight which was somewhat full and yet apart from the two emergency exit rows and a couple of people in business, no one was seated ahead of row 17 (a B737)

It was kinda weird as there was not a single seat available at the back of the plane.