@chrisvest @gsuberland for a B737-600, the empty jet weighs 36t and the passengers would weigh ~13t if i go with the "dense but still realistic" seating. so it's not an order of magnitude

edit: fixed typo (767->737)

@whitequark @chrisvest and even just from passive consumption of ACARS Drama it seems clear that aircraft are fuelled to significantly different levels depending on the passenger load.

(although I did also know this from other sources)

@gsuberland @chrisvest i was curious and did some calculations, apparently if you go with some reasonable assumptions (158 cm max linear dimension for checked bags, 30 kg max weight) then the checked bag density must be no more than 1/5 of passenger density

@whitequark @chrisvest related: a lot of lift weight capacities are actually pretty terrifying when you do the numbers. very easy to overload a lot of them with just a few tall heavily built people. and the safety margins on a lot of them are... uh... degraded.

@gsuberland @chrisvest huh. well, that's one more thing i'll proceed to not think about

@whitequark @chrisvest the good news is that there are like 4 redundant safety mechanisms to prevent plummets, and a couple of them are effective far beyond the stated weight capacity, even with worst-case dynamic loads. but the experience of stepping into an aging lift that barely had the capacity for two people when first installed, and feeling it drop a full 6 inches, is deeply alarming.