Pilot reveals why you should never swap to an empty seat before take off

Moving isn’t the best idea even if it might look tempting to move over to an empty seat as you take off, as Pete Hutchinson, former pilot for Virgin Atlantic, has explained.

While you’ll get told off from a cabin crew if you leave your seat mid-take off as it’s not safe to do so, there is another reason why doing this isn’t the smart move.

And the reasons why moving seats is a no-no, is that it could negatively affect the balance of the plane.

Hutchinson explained to The Independent that “to start moving seats, especially in significant numbers, to unplanned areas, could significantly impact the aircraft’s balance”.

“If everyone were to sit at the front of the aircraft, it could make getting off the deck harder compared to the norm, or even, in some cases, impossible”.

“Conversely, everyone sitting in the back end might cause the aircraft to tip on its tail on take-off or encounter a tail scrape on touchdown”, Hutchinson said.

The people’s sitting positions impacts the crew’s flight calculations, it has been revealed.

For example, they wouldn’t have everyone seated at one side of the plane.

Hutchinson said that the aircraft fuselage, which is the main body of a plane, is “like a see-saw”, and the idea is that the passengers keep it balanced.

“Flying safely is about keeping the aircraft correctly balanced,” he shared. “That is, within the airplane’s operational center of gravity. And it is crucial that the center of gravity be within an envelope — or limits.”

As he discussed the importance of making sure that weight is distributed evenly on a plane, he explained further: “Your specific position in the cabin is one of the variables in that aircraft trim calculation.”

“During a flight, you can move around, including to a different seat [with permission], but you must be in your allocated seat for both the take-off and the landing.”