Is this actually a worry? I mean, is it that they’re getting calls from crippled fatties, or is it a theoretical problem that only popped up when someone did the math on the 170-pound rule? Because, I’ll tell you, we have a lot of other things to worry about. How many people are affected by plane accidents, really? And how many plane accidents are hard enough to hurt you without killig you?
I swear, if they could figure how the victims of out of date safety rules, it’d be something like 13 people.
When the IDEAL weight for a man who is 6 foot is 180, shouldn’t the seats be designed to deal with more that 170 pounds?
Or should everyone be gaunt or short or shot?
And how many plane accidents are hard enough to hurt you without killig you?
The point is that we should not let people impair the safety of others. If a bank of three seats is rated for 510 lbs, then there should be appropriate limits and rules.
Note that increasing the weight “capacity” of the seats no only makes the aircraft heavier and thus flying more expensive, but it harms the safety of normal passengers, because the seats are designed to collapse controllably (like car structures) to absorb the energy of the crash.
Certainly, if someone is 250 pounds (50% over the limit) they should be paying a surcharge, and a seat should be left empty between two biggies.
If someone is much more than that (say, over 300) then they should have two seats (leave it to the airline how and whether to charge them.