CLT accident
 

Well I didn't say that incorrect weights were the sole cause of the CLT accident. What I said was -

"These latest FAA weights were promulgated in 2004 after the crash of a commuter aircraft (a B1900 in Charlotte I believe) which was legal on paper but overloaded"


You may review the NTSB findings in their report DCA03MA022. The relevant portion is this:


The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of this accident was the airplane’s loss of pitch control during takeoff. The loss of pitch control resulted from the incorrect rigging of the elevator control system compounded by the airplane’s aft center of gravity, which was substantially aft of the certified aft limit.

Contributing to the cause of the accident were (1) Air Midwest’s lack of oversight of the work being performed at the Huntington, West Virginia, maintenance station; (2) Air Midwest’s maintenance procedures and documentation; (3) Air Midwest’s weight and balance program at the time of the accident; (4) the Raytheon Aerospace quality assurance inspector’s failure to detect the incorrect rigging of the elevator control system; (5) the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) average weight assumptions in its weight and balance program guidance at the time of the accident; and (6) the FAA’s lack of oversight of Air Midwest’s maintenance program and its weight and balance program.


So, no, it didn't have "everything to do with an elevator trim system rigged backwards, and nothing to do with the aircraft weight or balance" and yes, you are seriously mistaken.

CLT Accident
 

As I recall, neither the elevator nor trim were rigged the wrong way round, but the cables were tensioned incorrectly, so that the elevators DID move in the correct direction, but did not give maximum deflection. Control was insufficient to recover.

May this never happen to us!

OORW

At my local airport I have long wondered why having put us to the trouble of taking our jackets and shoes off, that they don't then weigh us.

This guessing lark based on how thin we all were when we were poor and ate our greens isn't exactly a 'professional' way to weigh and balance an aircraft, is it?

I go over 220lbs, all in reasonable proportions you understand ;), but the other day I saw a guy who must've bust 350lbs shuffling from one plate of meat to the other in the Priority queue ahead of me. I studied his ar*e in the interests of science and wondered what seat would actually accommodate it ...

Turns out he could still squeeze it into a standard aisle seat and then rest his chin and forearms on what didn't fit between the arms of the seat! Actually, I now wonder if he was cheating and sitting on one cheek with the one or both seat arms folded up :p ... he did look perched rather precariously ... Nah, probably there's a nack to it ... sit down, spill out, then put the seat arms down :ok:

I pray to God I don't come back in the next life as a low-cost seat cushion :hmm: