[wombatmobile]

I'm surprised there isn't a process to establish actual weight of the human payload before takeoff, such as

1. Weighbridges

2. Automatically weighing passengers at the boarding gate

3. Asking passengers to write their weight at check-in

4. Scales built in to wheel struts

Whilst this might not often be a safety issue of the kind exhibited in the article, knowing the actual weight might be cost effective because it would enable airlines to more accurately tune fuel and freight components, which are significant cost and revenue centres respectively.

[cratermoon]

Except maybe airlines don't want people to know how good they've gotten at, shall we say, "skirting the margins", in an effort to cut costs.

[londons_explore]

On small planes the pilot will personally witness the weighing of each passenger and then decide which seat "Miss Too-Much-Pizza" will be sitting in...

[mogoman]

My dad mentioned to me once that back in the early days of commercial flying each passenger was weighed with their luggage