A flight attendant has warned against changing seats on a plane without notifying the crew for a rather alarming reason. Sereniti Hale, who works for the American airline American Airlines, shares intriguing facts about life as a crew member through videos she posts on TikTok. According to Hale, some passengers changing their seats before a flight can result in an emergency landing due to weight distribution, and it could even lead to a plane crash.
In one of her recent videos shared on social media, she explained to her 10.2k followers why they should never change seats on a plane without informing the crew for a serious reason, saying: "This is a quick and fun fact about planes and why you shouldn’t change your seat without asking the attendant. Before takeoff, we always do what's called weight and balance just to ensure that the weight is good on the plane and the balance is alright for takeoff. So when you change your seat, you’re actually changing the plane's balance, so always be sure to ask."
More than 26,000 people have viewed her video since it was posted, and many expressed their confusion about this information in the comments. One pilot confirmed Hale's statement, recounting a frightening incident involving a crew member when passengers moved before takeoff. Pilot Magnar Nordahl said, "Four passengers sat in seats that were not assigned to them before takeoff. My first officer was flying and had issues when he began to rotate the plane: it was too heavy. This was a very critical situation because the runway was very short, and we wouldn’t have been able to stop."
Nordahl explained on the popular forum Quora: "If the systems are set incorrectly, the plane may crash during takeoff." He also confirmed that there are no rules or laws against switching seats as long as passengers consult the flight attendants beforehand. Another flight attendant mentioned that the best place to sit is actually at the back of the plane.
