My flight just announced that it will be pretty empty, and that it is important for everyone to sit in their assigned seats to keep the weight balanced. What would happen if everyone, on a full flight, moved to one side of the plane?
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Former aircraft load-planner here.
To answer OP’s question, much of this would depend on the size of the aircraft, but shuffling weight around on a plane is always something of concern.
Moving from one side of the aircraft to the other wouldn’t have nearly as much of an effect as moving everyone from the front or to the rear.
Think about the shape of a plane as a big lever with the fulcrum running sideways through the wings also down the middle of the plane.
The plane is not very wide, so moving everyone to one side wouldn’t give you much leverage to affect the plane’s orientation.
However, the plane is much longer front-to-back, so adding all the weight at either end will have a much greater effect.
There is so much that goes on behind the scenes with aircraft operations, it’s fascinating.
And while it’s not for the faint of heart, if you want a dramatic example, read about the crash of National Air cargo flight 102 in Afghanistan.
In this instance, they were carrying a heavy load of wheeled vehicles. When taking off, the vehicles were not secured properly and slid to the back of the aircraft throwing off the center of balance to the point where the pilot could no longer control the plane.
This is a dramatic example.
If all the passengers on a 747 went to the back of the plane, the pilot would likely just compensate for this with some added trim or moving fuel.
EDIT: I’ve also dated a lot of flight attendants. Sometimes they just tell people to sit where they are so it’s less ass-pain for them with people running all over the place. And they also have to maintain (somewhat) the integrity of the fare-system for seats.
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