Hey guys,
I was recently on a BMI A332 flight from OERK (RUH) to EGLL (LHR) on July 31st, 2009. The aircraft (G-WWBD) was on the London-Jeddah-Riyadh-London leg for BMI, and I boarded at Riyadh.
Anyways, at check-in we were told that 60 seats had to be cancelled on the flight due to "technical problems" on the aircraft and that only aisle seats were available.
Upon boarding I found that the passengers from the incoming JED leg occupied only the front ~40% of the aircraft, and were all in the window seats. The passengers boarding on the RUH leg were also in the front 40%, but all in the aisle seats. The rear of the aircraft was completely empty and the flight attendants repeatedly stressed the fact that people should not move around too much, congregate at certain points, or change their seat, or use the rear bathrooms.
I was wondering why this happened? Of interest is the fact that this is the same aircraft that lost a winglet while in the air due to a lighting strike earlier, though almost a month had passed since that so I doubt it was the same thing. Could it have been the engines not operating at full capacity? If so, why the COG change and the frontal placement of the passengers? Possibly a fuel issue perhaps? Was one of the tanks or pumps inoperational? I'm not very well versed in COG and load order so apologies if I sound crazy.
I was hoping someone here could shed some light on the issue... purely from an educational point of view. Is this a common occurrence?
Cheers.
I was recently on a BMI A332 flight from OERK (RUH) to EGLL (LHR) on July 31st, 2009. The aircraft (G-WWBD) was on the London-Jeddah-Riyadh-London leg for BMI, and I boarded at Riyadh.
Anyways, at check-in we were told that 60 seats had to be cancelled on the flight due to "technical problems" on the aircraft and that only aisle seats were available.
Upon boarding I found that the passengers from the incoming JED leg occupied only the front ~40% of the aircraft, and were all in the window seats. The passengers boarding on the RUH leg were also in the front 40%, but all in the aisle seats. The rear of the aircraft was completely empty and the flight attendants repeatedly stressed the fact that people should not move around too much, congregate at certain points, or change their seat, or use the rear bathrooms.
I was wondering why this happened? Of interest is the fact that this is the same aircraft that lost a winglet while in the air due to a lighting strike earlier, though almost a month had passed since that so I doubt it was the same thing. Could it have been the engines not operating at full capacity? If so, why the COG change and the frontal placement of the passengers? Possibly a fuel issue perhaps? Was one of the tanks or pumps inoperational? I'm not very well versed in COG and load order so apologies if I sound crazy.
I was hoping someone here could shed some light on the issue... purely from an educational point of view. Is this a common occurrence?
Cheers.
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