Airplane misidentifies female passengers using title Miss as children, takes off with heavier load

A flight from the UK to Spain took off with more than a metric ton heavier than expected after a software registered women as children.

A flight from UK to Spain took off with more than a metric ton heavier than expected after a software registered women as children. It so happened that the women who were given the title of “Miss” or opted for the title “Miss” were counted as children by the faulty airline system. Due to this, the system allocated them a child’s standard weight of 35 kg instead of the correct female standard weight of 69 kg. “There was a fault in the system which, when a female passenger checked in for the flight and used or was given the title ‘Miss’, caused the system checked her in as a child. The system allocated them a child’s standard weight of 35 kg as opposed to the correct female standard weight of 69 kg. Consequently, with 38 females checked in incorrectly and misidentified as children, the G-TAWG takeoff mass from the load sheet was 1,244 kg below the actual mass of the aircraft,” the report states. Although the incident did not affect the flight’s safety, it was termed as a serious incident by the Air Accidents investigation branch. Due to the misidentification, the Boeing 737’s mass from the load sheet was 1,244 kg below the actual mass of the aircraft. However, the report states that the pilot did not use much thrust during takeoff, it was in fact “marginally less” than the expected thrust. This means that the safety of the aircraft was not compromised.