Unsecured Cargo

One of the things primary students learn early during their ground-school training-perhaps before they ever get into an airplane-is that the items loaded into it can weigh no more than a certain amount, and have to go in certain places. Overloading the aircraft, and/or placing heavy items far from its nominal center of gravity, is bad, theyre told. Somewhere along the way, it might also be explained that those items need to be secured. But the common way we load airplanes-especially those in which the passenger cabin and the cockpit are the same space-is to throw some soft-sided luggage in the baggage compartment, maybe throw some heavy things in the back seats or the floorboard behind the front seats, and light the fires. Little thought usually is given to whether those items should be secured, or how. Thats in sharp contrast to how we treat the passengers.

Joseph E. (Jeb) Burnside

Thursday, June 16, 2016 at 12:00 AM ET

Verified

Airlines around the world have activated mitigation strategies in a constantly changing environment brought about by the Coronavirus pandemic. Pixabay

Key Takeaways:

Pilots often neglect to properly secure cargo, despite early ground-school training and the practice of restraining passengers with seatbelts.
A fatal Piper Saratoga accident was attributed to unsecured porcelain tiles, which also exceeded the aircraft's cargo weight limit.
The shifting of this unsecured cargo during a go-around critically altered the aircraft's center of gravity, leading to an aerodynamic stall and crash.

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One of the things primary students learn early during their ground-school training—perhaps before they ever get into an airplane—is that the items loaded into it can weigh no more than a certain amount, and have to go in certain places. Overloading the aircraft, and/or placing heavy items far from its nominal center of gravity, is bad, they’re told. Somewhere along the way, it might also be explained that those items need to be secured.

But the common way we load airplanes—especially those in which the passenger cabin and the cockpit are the same space—is to throw some soft-sided luggage in the baggage compartment, maybe throw some heavy things in the back seats or the floorboard behind the front seats, and light the fires. Little thought usually is given to whether those items should be secured, or how. That’s in sharp contrast to how we treat the passengers.