DBC Situation When Passenger is Removed from Plane Because Plane is Overweight?
 

A friend had already boarded. They announced the plane was overweight. Without asking for volunteers, they took my friend off the plane because she was last to board. They did not first ask for volunteers, and they gave her a voucher for far less than the DBC amount.

Was this a DBC situation? Presumably the airline could have added fuel, the overweight situation was a result of last minute boarding of passengers from another (delayed) flight. (I'm assuming that when my friend was shifted to the new flight her reservation was changed to that flight; I'm not asking for opinions re whether she had a reservation, but whether removal of a passenger from a flight due to an overweight situation requires payment of DBC.)

It depends. What type of plane was it?

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"Presumably the airline could have added fuel"

How would adding fuel to an (already) overweight plane make the plane lighter?

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Here's a link to the DOT page that describes passenger rights and compensation due in bumping situations:

http://airconsumer.dot.gov/publications/flyrights.htm

I don't think denied boarding rules apply to overweight, only to oversold.

It was a 737 that was not entirely full. My understanding was that there was not enough fuel to carry the number of passengers that were on the flight to the destination.

What difference would removing one passenger and a bag or two do? FARK ALL!

You don't say WHERE your friend was flying from, WHERE to, or with which AIRLINE - completely impossible to say without this basic info, as rules vary.

If flying from an EU country to anywhere else on any airline - EU DBC regs apply. If flying from outside the EU to the EU, on an EU-based airline, they also apply. Anywhere else - it depends on the local laws.

The difference between legal and not-legal.

When it comes to performance, weight, and fuel issues there are specific limits. One pound below the limit is good, one pound above is not.

It was both: an oversell due to being overweight. There are a number of reasons why an aircraft might have to carry fewer passengers than seats (broken seats, weight limitations, customers of size, etc.), and although the airlines try to know how many seats will actually be available to be occupied in advance, sometimes things happen at the last minute (a seat breaks, headwinds are too strong). In any of these cases, when more confirmed passengers show up than seats are available to be occupied, it is an oversell, and any locally mandated denied boarding rules should apply.

As far as the remedy, as other posters have noted, the regulations that apply could be dependent on both the home nation of the carrier and/or where the flight was operating.

Since fuel goes into the fuel tanks, and not the passenger cabin, it is entirely possible that the fuel tanks were indeed full.

JetBlue runs into this problem every winter on its westbound transcons--even with seats kept empty, headwinds occasionally require a fuel stop enroute because the A320 just can't make it without dipping into required fuel reserves (which is Not A Good Thing unless it is an actual emergency).

You might want to read section 4 of the linked DOT site in the post above yours.

Overweight and not enough fuel are not the same thing. Airplanes have max takeoff and landing weights (which might not be the same), and can also be constrained further by local conditions, such as runway length, altitude, and temperature (the latter two affecting air density).

As others have mentioned, compensation depends on where this occurred and where the airline is based. Assuming US, the DOT summary linked in post 4 above would explain what conditions require compensation. On planes with over 60 seats, bumping pax because of "safety-related aircraft weight or balance constraints" does constitute IDB. Compensation amounts are determined by how long the pax is delayed (by schedule, not actual). If they put your friend on a flight that was scheduled to arrive at the destination within one hour of the original time, no compensation is due. 1-2 hours should net 200% of the one-way fare, capped at $650, longer than two hours doubles those amounts. The time periods are different for international flights.

Runway length and current weather conditions can have a strong bearing on allowable weight both for takeoff and landings.

Jackson Hole WY is a good example of weather changing things quickly for weight limits.

Another time in leaving Salzburg Austria we had to take only enough fuel to get to Dublin before continuing on to LAX. Mostly because the plane was stuffed full with passengers and baggage combined with a short runway.

In my experience there are can be variables that impact airlines decisions.

Guido88

I'm assuming this was a larger plane? I've been denied boarding of a smaller plane due to weight. It's kind of scary when you think about how careful they have to be.

Air Midwest flight 5481 crashed in part from being overweight. There were 21 passengers aboard. I think the airline was using an average weight per passenger of 160 pounds, calculating half men and half women or children at 180/140. Problem is people tend to weigh more than this these days. The flight was actually made up of almost all grown men and ended up being 500+ pounds overweight. The very heavy suitcases had been put in the back making it tail-heavy.

The pilots could have dealt with the weight problem had their not been a maintenance error. Anyway, if in doubt they are welcome to keep me off!

That's exactly right. When it comes to these calculations, all of the "fudge factors" and safety margins are already built into the published limits. It's drilled into pilots during training that they can comfortably go right up to the limits, but not even a bit over. This removes the situation of each pilot individually deciding how much fudge factor to add or subtract from the published limits to get to the "real" number.