I know it’s a terrible pun, but don’t hold it against the story:
The airline diet: Couple lose 12st after plane could not take off because they were too heavy
By Lucy Laing
Daily Mail (London) (via the Drudge Report)
Last updated at 9:51 PM on 03rd October 2008
The plane was on the runway; the holidaymakers in good spirits.
And when the stewardess came down the aisle towards Jan Coupe and her husband, she thought the flight attendant was going to check their seatbelts.
Then came the moment Mrs Coupe wished the earth would open up and she could disappear.
Too heavy: Alan and Jan Coupe weighed too much for their plane to take off
For the stewardess had to tell the couple – who weighed 38st [“st” = stone = 14 pounds or about 6.35 kilograms] between them – that they were too heavy for the plane to take off.
As his wife cringed with embarrassment, 20st Alan Coupe moved to the front of the aircraft to help even out the weight.
While it was a scene they wouldn’t have wished on their worst enemies, some good has come of it.
The couple, who run a bed and breakfast business, were so shocked they started to diet and have now lost 12 1/2st between them.
Mrs Coupe, 49, said: ‘It was a decent-sized plane full of holidaymakers – it wasn’t a small plane – so it was devastating to be told that even a big plane like that couldn’t cope with all our weight being at the back.
‘The stewardess asked one of us to get up and move to the front, so Alan volunteered to move which I was thankful about as I was so embarrassed I just couldn’t look up.’
Slimline: The couple have now lost over 12st through healthy eating
She added: ‘ We couldn’t believe that we were too heavy for the plane to take off.’
The couple married in 1980 and Mrs Coupe said they settled into a routine of eating late at night.
‘We ate takeaways at least three times a week, and had our favourite Chinese or pizza,’ she said.
Mrs Coupe, from Stubbington, Hampshire, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in January 2005.
In April that year, the couple decided to go on a week’s holiday to Guernsey with son Chris – and that’s when the plane from Southampton couldn’t take off.
It wasn’t the first time their weight had caused a problem.
A few years earlier they had been on a boat ride at the London Dungeon with their son and daughter Chloe.
Mrs Coupe said: ‘Both Alan and I sat on the same side of the boat and it tipped over, causing water to slosh in.
‘The man in charge asked us to move to balance the weight in the boat, and the children were mortified.’
Following the plane ordeal, and also to help with her MS, Mrs Coupe joined a Slimming World club.
She persuaded her husband to attend and in the first week Mrs Coupe lost 8lb and Mr Coupe lost 9lb.
Instead of takeaways at night, the couple had pasta, vegetable curries or steak salads.
Now Mrs Coupe has lost 6st 5lb and her 54-year-old husband 5st 13lb.
Mrs Coupe, who has also dropped six dress sizes to a 14, said: ‘I don’t feel embarrassed about getting on a plane anymore – we all feel so great we could fly around the world now without a hitch.’
By: LBARULES - 13th October 2008 at 13:42
Symon
The DH8D is very trim sensitive, it is an extremely long aeroplane, but when it is full up with pax it is not so critical, more critical the less passengers you have on board. Moving 2 passengers makes a big difference but if this was indeed a Flybe DH8D then I am rather surprised the overweight couple were asked to move.
The way it works is that the CC passes us a trim sheet with the passengers sat in what bays (bays a-d, it’s split into 4 sections), and these passenger numbers in each bay must tie in with what’s on the load sheet, if it doesn’t then we check the MACTOW (where the CofG is), if it’s aft or foward then it’s fine as long as everyone are seated correctly, if not then it either helps us (forward MACTOW and passengers have moved back or visa versa) or it doesn’t (forward MACTOW and passengers have moved forward or visa versa). If the latter is the case then we need to consult a manual weight & balance sheet in the QRH and work out whether they can stay where they are or be moved. What we won’t do is ask the CC or dispatcher to move the fat people in row H etc. We just ask for “2 people” to move.
End of the day we work on average weights for male/female/infant, so it’s irrelevant how large or small they are.
Of course we do get people asking if they can move, if they want to move from Bay d to a then as long as the MACTOW isn’t near the forward limit we allow it. (& visa versa)Rgds
Dean
Oh yes!! Experience this all the time, its especially a problem when you get all the pax pre booking their seats, and they generally all choose to sit at the front! Can be an even bigger problem on the Embraer 145, but we won’t go into that! Have had to move 6 or 7 pax on a Dash 8 before to get it ‘in trim’, not nice for us, the passengers or the crew, but that’s the way it is unfortunately.
By: symon - 13th October 2008 at 13:42
Mind you that gives them two meals so it’s not all bad.
Rgds Cking
😀
By: Cking - 13th October 2008 at 13:30
[QUOTE=Distiller;1306429]People exceeding a certain width should be obligated to buy two seats.
QUOTE]
One of the airlines I deal with have a rule that says if the passenger overhangs their seat by more than an inch they have to buy two seats.
Mind you that gives them two meals so it’s not all bad.
Rgds Cking
By: Deano - 13th October 2008 at 09:37
Thanks for the explanation Dean. So, it possibly sounds as though the CC were required to shuffle things round a bit and unfortunately they looked around and asked the couple in question instead of asking for volunteers?
I would assume so but then you know how stories get mis-interpreted by the media etc. If they did single them out then it’s pretty poor to be honest
By: Distiller - 5th October 2008 at 16:54
Yes, great idea… lets discriminate against people who may have an eating disorder or some other weight condition not attributed to eating too many pies!:mad: Hey what about the elderly/infirm having to pay a per second slow walking tax on board too? oh… blind folk!, surely they could be made to pay more for having the extra baggage in the form of a walking stick. Deaf folk definitely should pay more, since they never listen to the safety announcement?,Pregnant women… deffo!! all that extra weight, in fact, arrest them for assisting a stowaway? Snorers?? a hefty snore tax, the guy who laughs out loud at the Simpsons on the IFE? Tax the passengers who do not finish their inflight meals? could have saved valuable fuel by not having to carry full portions for those who don’t finish it. In fact anyone flying must fill in a questionnaire at time of booking detailing weight,shoe size,hair colour,religion,marital status,health conditions, how pregnant they will be at flight time, credit history, employment history, make of car they own, homeowner/tenant,average alcohol units per week, smoker and full details of all their neighbours in the street including a police check for all….. then a fair price could be worked out for each passenger and maybe, just maybe you won’t have to suffer a “superfat dude” on the plane beside you (alternatively you could just buy first class tickets for an entire row to guarantee this heinous act not ruining your flying pleasure!!!
Lots of creative ideas you have! I would also ad extra charges for not sitting next to ethnix.
I do fly biz, but only on biz. Private short hops come to my mind when talking about “superfat dude”. Speaking of it – I had a phase when I was specialized on mothers with newborns seated next to me. No complains here – nice company usually.
By: symon - 5th October 2008 at 14:15
Thanks for the explanation Dean. So, it possibly sounds as though the CC were required to shuffle things round a bit and unfortunately they looked around and asked the couple in question instead of asking for volunteers?
By: Tartan Pics - 5th October 2008 at 12:16
A superfat dude in the seat next to you – what fun on a flight! Perhaps a little sweaty … (Where are those cute girls in miniskirts???)
People exceeding a certain width should be obligated to buy two seats. Just re-do the seats so that the armrests can be folded up without sticking out.And I’m also for having pax pay for their own weight plus their luggage weight.
A base price plus a per-pound price. Then the overweight/number of bags issue vanishes.
Yes, great idea… lets discriminate against people who may have an eating disorder or some other weight condition not attributed to eating too many pies!:mad: Hey what about the elderly/infirm having to pay a per second slow walking tax on board too? oh… blind folk!, surely they could be made to pay more for having the extra baggage in the form of a walking stick. Deaf folk definitely should pay more, since they never listen to the safety announcement?,Pregnant women… deffo!! all that extra weight, in fact, arrest them for assisting a stowaway? Snorers?? a hefty snore tax, the guy who laughs out loud at the Simpsons on the IFE? Tax the passengers who do not finish their inflight meals? could have saved valuable fuel by not having to carry full portions for those who don’t finish it. In fact anyone flying must fill in a questionnaire at time of booking detailing weight,shoe size,hair colour,religion,marital status,health conditions, how pregnant they will be at flight time, credit history, employment history, make of car they own, homeowner/tenant,average alcohol units per week, smoker and full details of all their neighbours in the street including a police check for all….. then a fair price could be worked out for each passenger and maybe, just maybe you won’t have to suffer a “superfat dude” on the plane beside you (alternatively you could just buy first class tickets for an entire row to guarantee this heinous act not ruining your flying pleasure!!!
By: Distiller - 5th October 2008 at 10:47
A superfat dude in the seat next to you – what fun on a flight! Perhaps a little sweaty … (Where are those cute girls in miniskirts???)
People exceeding a certain width should be obligated to buy two seats. Just re-do the seats so that the armrests can be folded up without sticking out.
And I’m also for having pax pay for their own weight plus their luggage weight.
A base price plus a per-pound price. Then the overweight/number of bags issue vanishes.
By: Deano - 5th October 2008 at 10:28
Symon
The DH8D is very trim sensitive, it is an extremely long aeroplane, but when it is full up with pax it is not so critical, more critical the less passengers you have on board. Moving 2 passengers makes a big difference but if this was indeed a Flybe DH8D then I am rather surprised the overweight couple were asked to move.
The way it works is that the CC passes us a trim sheet with the passengers sat in what bays (bays a-d, it’s split into 4 sections), and these passenger numbers in each bay must tie in with what’s on the load sheet, if it doesn’t then we check the MACTOW (where the CofG is), if it’s aft or foward then it’s fine as long as everyone are seated correctly, if not then it either helps us (forward MACTOW and passengers have moved back or visa versa) or it doesn’t (forward MACTOW and passengers have moved forward or visa versa). If the latter is the case then we need to consult a manual weight & balance sheet in the QRH and work out whether they can stay where they are or be moved. What we won’t do is ask the CC or dispatcher to move the fat people in row H etc. We just ask for “2 people” to move.
End of the day we work on average weights for male/female/infant, so it’s irrelevant how large or small they are.
Of course we do get people asking if they can move, if they want to move from Bay d to a then as long as the MACTOW isn’t near the forward limit we allow it. (& visa versa)
Rgds
Dean
By: symon - 5th October 2008 at 02:13
Mrs Coupe, 49, said: ‘It was a decent-sized plane full of holidaymakers – it wasn’t a small plane – so it was devastating to be told that even a big plane like that couldn’t cope with all our weight being at the back.
In April that year, the couple decided to go on a week’s holiday to Guernsey with son Chris – and that’s when the plane from Southampton couldn’t take off.
So….it was either a Blue Islands Jetstream 32 or more than likely a Flybe Dash 8? They were correct, not ‘small planes’ at all :rolleyes: Maybe Dean would be able to say if the aircraft are that sensitive? Must have been pretty fully laden for it to make a difference?
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October 5, 2008 at 12:16 am