An accidental weight shift caused a JetBlue Airbus A321ceo to abruptly tilt back as passengers were deplaning at a gate at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York, on Monday.
Many passengers had already gotten off Flight 662 from Bridgetown, Barbados when the plane turned skyward, looked to the heavens and asked why it couldn’t have been a Boeing, according to The New York Post.
Luckily for all parties involved, no one was injured in the incident, The Post reports. A JetBlue spokesperson said a “shift in weight and balance” during deplaning caused the tail to tip backward.
Eventually, the nose did return from above. The spokesperson went on to say that JetBlue is reviewing the incident, and the Airbus had been taken out of service for inspection.
CBS News spoke with people who were along for the ride when the plane tipped at the JFK.
“It felt like the plane was about to do a backflip,” said Sinead Bovell, a futurist and the founder of a tech education company called Waye.
[…]
“Everybody kind of screamed and was grabbing for seats. Anybody who was standing up was grabbing for seats,” said Bovell.
According to Bovell, the plane and jet bridge were damaged.
“It was a really good thing there was nobody specifically stepping out at that point in time,” said Bovell.
The tip happened around 8:30 p.m. after the plane’s second flight of the day, but it didn’t cause any sort of disruptions to operations at JFK, a Port Authority spokesperson told The Post:
If you’re wondering how situations like this can be prevented, The Post gives a fairly simple breakdown:
Pilots calculate weight and balance before every flight to determine the plane’s center of gravity and ensure the proper performance.
The position of the center of gravity is affected by the total weight of the passengers and other contents, as well as their distribution.
At times, passengers are asked to change seats to make sure the plane is properly balanced — but an aircraft tipping at the gate is very rare.
Very rare, indeed, but at least it makes for some pretty funny visuals. Also, aviation people who know better than me, why isn’t there a small set of wheels at the rear of the plane to stop this from happening? I’ve always wondered about that. Let me know if you’ve got insight, because I’m a silly boy.