Posted on 06/13/2021 9:41:34 PM PDT by Signalman
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is demanding U.S. airlines submit plans with updated weight averages they will use for passengers and baggage moving forward by Saturday.
According to the Wall Street Journal, “Airlines officials say the weight estimates used for passengers and baggage are going up between 5 percent and 10 percent.”
“That will affect some flights, possibly requiring that more passengers get bumped or more baggage left behind,” the Journal reported.
Airline officials say the weight requirements used for passengers and baggage are going up about 10% or more. That will affect some flights, possibly requiring that more passengers get bumped or more baggage left behind.
While the novel coronavirus — a virus exacerbated by excessive weight where 78 percent of those hospitalized with infection were overweight or obese — should have served as a wake-up call to the decades-long obesity crisis, Americans instead packed on the pounds with apparently little concern.
According to a global Ipsos poll in January, two in five Americans reported gaining weight throughout the lockdowns still in place at the time. Those surveyed said they put on an average of more than 14 pounds, putting the U.S. seventh out of 30 countries in terms of pandemic weight gain.
Most Americans appeared relatively unbothered by the weight. Less than half said they believed there was a link between obesity and complications from COVID-19 which data determined early on was a major risk contributor.
“Since the pandemic began,” Science Magazine reported in September, “dozens of studies have reported that many of the sickest COVID-19 patients have been people with obesity.”
Overweight patients in one study published in August cited by the flagship journal were 113 percent more likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19 compared to patients of an otherwise healthy weight. Obese patients were found 74 percent more likely to end up in intensive care units (ICU) and 48 percent more likely to die. Pre-pandemic, more than 70 percent of adults 20 years old and older were already overweight with 42 percent categorically “obese” according to the CDC.
The proliferation of aggressive fat-acceptance has thrown a cultural roadblock into efforts to ignite a nationwide reckoning on weight despite the visible consequences of obesity’s toll illustrated by the coronavirus pandemic which claimed nearly 600,000 American lives.
As the pandemic in the U.S. subsides, vaccine incentives such as Krispy Kreme’s free doughnut a day for the rest of the year offered to those who present vaccine cards show Americans have learned nothing from the COVID-19 pandemic other than it’s acceptable — righteous and noble even — to place one’s personal health into their neighbors’ responsibility. While it might be sweet marketing, it feeds the cultural barriers to substantive efforts to mitigate obesity as an issue Americans need to start caring about.
The consequences of excessive weight, already applying pressure on the health care system for years as the root cause of many chronic illnesses, has now stretched beyond the confines of the doctor’s office and into the air with the FAA forced to make changes likely to spur disruption while it’s also been a legitimate national security concern for years.
Krispy Kreme didn’t demand the FAA change its safety rules. Decades of poor choices did that. The company capitalizing on the pandemic’s end, which should have opened America’s eyes to its struggle with obesity, instead highlights the cultural obstacles ahead while Americans have become apathetic to the deadly issue
Now that people are not ridiculously confined to their homes, that should be easier to do.
This is garbage. They’ve flown for years with no problems. I think the airlines shrank their seat size to stuff in a few extra rows and just realized those extra people are too much weight.
They have even limited baggage over the last decade. I’m not buying this crap.
I’m so glad we bought our class B RV last year and are retired so we can drive anywhere in the US now. No need to fly.
“Crisis grows” ...by the pound.
Literally.
My problem isn’t girth.
It’s length.
I can control my weight, but not my height and inseam.
In any case, people aren’t passengers anymore.
They’re cargo.
I’ve never had a problem with flying by the pound.
“” now they’re gonna start checking your BMI before boarding.””
Well if you’re carrying excess baggage you pay a higher price. Weight determines a lot of things when flying. When we go fishing we have to weigh all of our gear and ourselves. There’s usually 8 of us go either to Canada or Louisiana every year and weight determines distance before we have to set down and refuel.
“worst case scenario, each passenger is ‘requested’ to step onto a giant Meat Scale, in full view of the public.“
Remember that chrome plated steel rack they had to see if your carry-on luggage would fit? How about one for fat butts? Your ticket is actually for about 17” of space on the airplane. You don’t fit? Buy another space.
More than likely they are adjusting the weight to a new norm average to allow for properly figuring the aircraft weight and balance for takeoff and landing. This will probably result in fewer and larger seats as well as justify higher ticket prices to make up for fewer passengers.
This is a safety of flight issue. Aircraft passenger weights are probably still tied to the military standard of 200lbs per soldier from WWII. Time for an update.
Most people will just crawl into these private cabins and sleep. Less work for the stewardesses.
You could probably stack these cabins three high. For a little extra money, you get a cabin with a porthole.
The seats on a 737 are the same 17.2 inches wide as the original 707 and 727 seats in the 1960’s. It’s the same cabin cross-section. What’s different is the pitch of the seats. The rows of seats are closer together.
Or 2 people should buy 3 seats.
Being fat’s bad?
Who’da thought?
Good luck fat-shaming folks into fitness. We can’t even gender-shame to stop nitwits from cutting their penises off…
Sounds like a scheme to pay more & get less. This would profit only the airlines, however they certainly should have the right to sell a very large or overweight person the extra seat or one in first class. This would make it fairer for everyone I think, except maybe for the others in first class.
i think thet will probably go this route
but people lie about weight,,espec. women
and if you think they are going to let themselves be weighed before getting on a plane, doubtful
Just what we need, another Crisis.
Step on a Scale before Boarding, just like the last scene of the Twilight Zone Episode “To Serve Man”.
With RATS in charge we have a giant new crisis daily. They cause it and then they come up with some cockamamie idea to fix it.
what happens in an emergency when one person COMPLETELY blocks the isle, unconscious...
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