Was on AS 678 on June 14, SEA-DEN, a full flight (details offered in case anyone wants to look it up). After boarding, they asked for 20 volunteers for "weight and balance issues" offering VDB. About a dozen took up the offer then they offloaded bags. I assume the issue was a max weight issue.
This raises several questions in my mind. How could a 1000 mile leg on a 737 (even if it was a 900) departing on a cool evening from sea level with a long runway end up overweight that much? Could they have been carrying a huge amount of fish on ice or gold bars or something? How could they have not known ahead of time they needed volunteers? Is some cargo profitable enough that offloading 20 people can be a net win?
This flight ended up 2 hours late because the original aircraft had a mechanical issue (or so we were told) and we eventually were given a different aircraft. Could the backup aircraft have had some issues that didn't affect the airworthiness but might have impacted the allowed maximum weight? Does that ever happen?
The situation just doesn't compute. If it were some combination of a long leg, "hot and high", a short runway, or something like that, I'd understand. This I don't understand. Any ideas?
This raises several questions in my mind. How could a 1000 mile leg on a 737 (even if it was a 900) departing on a cool evening from sea level with a long runway end up overweight that much? Could they have been carrying a huge amount of fish on ice or gold bars or something? How could they have not known ahead of time they needed volunteers? Is some cargo profitable enough that offloading 20 people can be a net win?
This flight ended up 2 hours late because the original aircraft had a mechanical issue (or so we were told) and we eventually were given a different aircraft. Could the backup aircraft have had some issues that didn't affect the airworthiness but might have impacted the allowed maximum weight? Does that ever happen?
The situation just doesn't compute. If it were some combination of a long leg, "hot and high", a short runway, or something like that, I'd understand. This I don't understand. Any ideas?
