Justin Bullock, FISM News
A potentially embarrassing development for Americans may be found in new pre-flight rules and requirements from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that would require overweight passengers to step on a scale before boarding their flights. These rules come in response to the growing rate of obesity in the United States. The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) has observed that the prevalence of adult obesity in the US has grown 11.9% from 1999 to 2018 and currently rests at a rate of approximately 42.4% of Americans.
This rise in American obesity has forced the FAA, in conjunction with the CDC, to re-evaluate the number of passengers allowed on a commercial aircraft at a time, in order to provide for adequate safety measures in flying. The FAA outlines its rules and requirements in its Advisory Circular No. 120-27F. Gary Leff at View From the Wing breaks down the FAA’s Advisory and reports that this process will be voluntary, random, and private at least for now. It should also be noted that while the process of weighing passengers is novel in the US, some foreign countries have already implemented similar weighing measures for their airline passengers. Some countries have even started charging passengers based upon their weight.