To think it’s about time all women were Ms or Mrs following this plane error

[AtlasPine]

www.theguardian.com/world/2021/apr/09/tui-plane-serious-incident-every-miss-on-board-child-weight-birmingham-majorca

The confusion caused here could have had dire consequences.

Isn’t it about time we dropped the title ‘Miss’ to differentiate between adult women and girls?

This has got nothing to do with women’s titles and everything to do with IT - that’s a serious programming mistake that should have been picked up given the safely ramifications.

YABU. This is an IT error; no need to go all out for women’s titles based on this.

Definitely something up with the system, not the titles.

I have experience in booking / chartering flights and our customers can use what ever title they prefer. This is changed (based on their date of birth) to the less ambiguous Mr / Ms / Chd / Inf before the airline gets the info. Even in a 'Miss' did slip through, it'd more likely be picked up as a 'Ms' than a 'Chd'.

Investigators described the glitch as “a simple flaw” in an IT system. It was programmed in an unnamed foreign country where the title “Miss” is used for a child and “Ms” for an adult female.
It was a translation error. Whether or not "Miss" is used in English is not going to make any difference in this unnamed foreign country.

@tendofether

I'd be interested to know if this child/adult weight classification is common. I can think of a few scenarios where it wouldn't be representative even if they had children and adults classified correctly, e.g. school trip of 15 year olds, all children but using the child's weight for each one would underestimate the weight.

Anybody over 11 is classed as adult by airlines (or by a select few 'youth' which presumably has its own average weight).

@ImInStealthMode

Definitely something up with the system, not the titles.

I have experience in booking / chartering flights and our customers can use what ever title they prefer. This is changed (based on their date of birth) to the less ambiguous Mr / Ms / Chd / Inf before the airline gets the info. Even in a 'Miss' did slip through, it'd more likely be picked up as a 'Ms' than a 'Chd'.

This is really interesting thank you

Wow. The standard weights use seem a bit out anyway. It doesn't seem very reliable.

Average adult weight 69kg? Really?? That's only just over 10.5 stone. For a nation with a large percentage of the population that's overweight, I very much doubt that's a good guess.

Mind you, imagine getting everyone to step on the scales at check in (I've had to do this when flying in small aircraft overseas - we even had to sit in certain seats according to our size to balance the load!).

It’s kind of baffling as a story - why has this only happened on one flight? Surely the software would have been in wider usage?

@stuckinarutatwork I've had to do the same for a 9 seater between Jersey and Guernsey back in the day. The seats moved forward and back like in a 3 door car and every time we flew through a cloud everyone got a bit damp

Women should be able to use whatever title they like. I'm entitled to use doctor if I wish.

It was a system error

Anybody over 11 is classed as adult by airlines (or by a select few 'youth' which presumably has its own average weight).

Which makes the ms/miss distinction even more unfathomable. Surely they have birth dates, so over 11 versus under 11 should be straightforward

What about male adult/female adult/child. The actual weight might be even better but that would open another can of worms,

Why would they use titles, of which there are dozens of variations, miss, ms, mrs, mr, dr, prof, revd, mx.......

Why wouldn't they just just year of birth which they will have as everyone has to provide that for flights, so just a simple calculation of under 18 or over 18 based on year of birth.

Well every make is Mr. So how do they sort that weight issue out?

This just appears another way woman have to change to accommodate things that could easily be sorted another way.

You know - like entering child and adult as it clearly states passengers are when they book.

@BobBobBobbin

It’s kind of baffling as a story - why has this only happened on one flight? Surely the software would have been in wider usage?

It happened on two other flights. They had identified and corrected the problem 11 days earlier, but somehow the flights on that one day were not corrected - probably human error in that case.

If they were all called Dr what weight would they have used

Many airlines either don’t have an option for Dr, so you have to enter a sex specific title when you book tickets. Miss, ms, mrs, mr are your only options.

I have seen Dr (male) and Dr (female) as options. Can’t remember whether that was flight booking though.

@Anycrispsleft

There's like 10 different ways that issue could have been avoided that don't involve further reducing women's choice.

This entirely - why does it have to be women as usual to blame here

@tendofether

Ps exh is dr, what do they do then???

What's the betting they use a male average weight?

On small planes when you check in, you have to choose between Dr (Male) and Dr (Female). They also ask your date of birth, so female titles are irrelevant, as they are in general life, but that's a whole other issue.

They also look at the passengers when they're all sat down and move people around if there are lots of people on one side or front/back of the plane that are not close to average weight, as it's about balance as well as total weight.

Ah thanks @ravenmum somehow I skimmed over that paragraph of the article - makes more sense!

Or just change the software for the reservations system?
Although I'm no fan of denoting a womans marital status by way of title

YABU. Women have the choice to be called Miss, Mrs or Ms. There is nothing right or wrong with choosing any of them.

To me "Ms" always seems to indicate the person using it is insecure, or at least they they believe there is something inferior with one or other of the traditional titles.

What a stupid system and nothing to do with needing to drop the Miss/Mrs/Ms titles. Every female has a choice what to use. I like my Mrs title.

More stupid is the average weight (oh to be 69kg lol), but in addition my 14 year old son is a strapping 6ft well muscled male.

But then this also sits with the ... you can't put that case in the hold / on as hand luggage but feel free to move it between cases / wear it and then you can all step on the exactly same plane!

Surely the solution is just weigh all bags and passengers at check in? No guessing, no averages.

Women have the choice to be called Miss, Mrs or Ms. There is nothing right or wrong with choosing any of them

None of those are my correct title though.

I’m a Miss it really pisses me off when there isn’t that option on forms. It’s my title. It’s who I am, I don’t want that taken away.

@skirk64

YABU. Women have the choice to be called Miss, Mrs or Ms. There is nothing right or wrong with choosing any of them.

To me "Ms" always seems to indicate the person using it is insecure, or at least they they believe there is something inferior with one or other of the traditional titles.

😅😅😅 I use it, Ms, because I don't define myself by my marital status. No insecurity here.