Flying on a small plane? Better know your exact weight
Investigators suspect that the small plane that crashed on takeoff in Charlotte, N.C., on Jan. 8, killing all 21 people on board, may have been overloaded due to flawed estimates of the passengers weights according to this New York Times story (registration required). Therefore, "The Federal Aviation Administration is ordering all 24 airlines that operate the small planes to collect weight information from a sampling of their flights."
Standard guidance from the agency to airlines flying small planes, including US Airways Express, which operated the Charlotte plane, is to allow 180 pounds for each adult in winter and 175 pounds in summer. Both figures include clothing and shoes and 20 pounds for carry-ons. Children ages 2 to 12 are assumed to weigh 80 pounds, year round.
These figures were developed before obesity became the public health problem it is today.