School children caught up in Qantas plane weight drama!

[Lambswool]

Schoolchildren caught up in Qantas plane weight drama (http://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/schoolchildren-caught-up-in-qantas-plane-weight-drama/story-e6frfq80-1227046635591)

[Angle of Attack]

About as much drama as when I drop the soap in the shower...

[weighman]

If they were at the centre of the plane, there wouldn't have been any drama!!!!
Journos?????

[nonsense]

The kids were at the back; 87 of them apparently roughly 50kg lighter than assumed - just over 4 tonnes of assumed mass missing:

"The miscalculation meant that the Boeing 737 appeared "nose-heavy" during take off, requiring the captain to pull pack on his elevator controls to rotate the aircraft and lift off from the runway at Canberra Airport."

As a result:
"The captain maintained steady pressure on the plane's control column to ensure that the aircraft's tail did not strike the runway during the take-off."

Maybe I'm missing something here, but surely a tail strike was the least likely consequence. No mention of rearranging the passengers in flight.

[Alanwsg]

From 'The Register' ....

Data entry REAR-END SNAFU: Weighty ballsup leads to plane take-off flap ? The Register (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/09/05/flight_fright_light_mites_not_quite_right/)

[ampclamp]

From the ATSB http://www.atsb.gov.au/media/5092920/ao-2014-088_final.pdf

[framer]

It's good to see they are changing procedures to prevent it happening again in the future. I think it could quite easily have turned into a high speed reject and been more serious.

[Capt Claret]

I'd have thought the chances of a high speed reject given the published circumstances, fairly remote. All training would certainly be contrary to one.