When you see this question, it’s normal to think the answer isn’t that scary after all. When you know the answer, you may find it hard to believe.
Although we confirmed it from various sources, we also consulted Ms. Aeronautical Engineer Meriç Kahvecioğlu, Aeronautical Engineer Mustafa Okan Doksar and Pilot Burcu Deniz on this issue, as we wanted the answer to be more precise. So let’s not make you wonder any more and let’s get right to the answer:
In fact, airplanes do not have a wide enough space for all the passengers to run suddenly.
Let’s assume that there are no seats and examine whether this is theoretically possible.
Some aircraft models can hold up to 170 passengers, while in some models the capacity reaches up to 800. Let’s take a 170-seat airplane as an example. Even assuming the average weight of a passenger is 60 kilos, the total weight of the passengers is more than 10 tons.
In other words, a 10-ton load evenly distributed on the plane will suddenly move forward or backward. Passenger planes can tolerate some load instability, but a 10-tonne load shift would make things worse.
Every airplane has CG (center of gravity) limits.
The auto trim function, which allows the aircraft to be brought back to the neutral position in such imbalances, responds to the CG change. The cockpit trims the aircraft according to the given CG value, but problems can still occur in sudden changes.
The occupancy rate of the aircraft and the sudden displacement of a crowded group may pose a hazard and cause the aircraft to exceed the CG limits. The pilot makes a great effort to fly the plane, but the plane, which has become very unstable, cannot respond to this effort and most likely crashes. Of course, we cannot say that it will definitely fall because it has not been tried before, but there are many accidents due to incorrect cargo loading.
For example, this cargo plane crashed due to a similar stability problem.
- You have to watch the video on YouTube.
There were tons of military vehicles on the plane. While the plane was taking off, the objects holding these vehicles broke due to excessive tension.
With nothing holding them back, the vehicles sliding behind the plane caused a load to accumulate and the plane, which lost its balance, crashed soon after.
In other words, the answer to this question is quite frightening, as there are various examples.
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