Delicate balance

I flew home last night. The plane I was on was less than 60% full. I know this because they called up all the people in rows 8 – 11 and re-seated them elsewhere because apparently if the plane is that empty and everyone is in the front then it gets nose-heavy and isn’t safe to fly or something. Of course, the fun part of this is that rows 8 – 11 were all the economy-plus seats, where the frequent travelers who didn’t make the first class upgrade cut get to sit with a couple inches more leg room.

I am not sure how I feel about the fact that a massive piece of machinery capable of traveling great distances through the sky can be apparently be brought down by 24 people sitting in the wrong spot. But luckily, despite the great lamentations and woe that all the re-seated people expressed, many at length, to the gate agents during the entire re-seating process, everyone stayed in their new seats and we all made it to SF in one piece. Yay.

‘Tis the season for Holidailies.



  • It is amazing sometimes to think it’s only been a little over 110 years since the Wright Brothers did their experiments in flight…and how far we’ve come (and not) since then. How a little thing like who’s sitting where can possibly upset such a large contraption.

  • I was on a flight once on a small airplane that was overweight. They figured that out after we had already boarded. They asked for volunteers to get off, but nobody would. The solution was to sit at the gate until it was impossible for people to make their connections on the other end and then convincing those folks to get off. The rest of us got to travel – eventually. Aparently it was snowing at our destination, so they had to load extra fuel just in case we diverted to our alternate airport, so they couldn’t fill up the plane all the way. I’m just glad someone was doing the math!


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