A former pilot has explained why it can be dangerous to change your allocated seat on an aircraft before take-off.
Most travellers have been there: you step onto a plane, only to discover that your assigned seat is wedged between two passengers, perhaps one holding a baby and another with bulky bags, while, just a few rows back, entire rows of seats sit temptingly empty.
The instinct, of course, is to rush to the back and claim one. The urgency makes sense: if you wait for the crew to reseat you after take-off, chances are those empty rows will likely be gone by the time the seatbelt sign goes off.
Tempting as it may be to ‘disobey’, there is solid reasoning behind the crew’s insistence that passengers remain in their assigned seats until after take-off – and it has everything to do with safety.
Pete Hutchinson, better known online as ‘Pete the Irish Pilot’, is a former commercial and military pilot who has become something of a social-media celebrity. He told The Independent that the key issue is aircraft balance. If a large number of passengers move to one section of the plane, it can throw off that balance.
@captainsteeeve Airplane Weight Balance: Why You're Asked to Move Seats Ever wondered why airlines ask us to move seats? We explain how weight and balance affect flight safety and maneuvers, ensuring we can fly safe. Like, share, and subscribe! #AirplaneWeightBalance #FlightSafety #AviationExplained #PilotTips #AirlineSecrets #CaptainSteve #TravelTips #AirTravel #Planes #Aviation ♬ original sound – CaptainSteeeve
“If everyone sat at the front, it could make getting off the ground harder – or even, impossible,” he said. “Conversely, if everyone sat at the back, the aircraft might tip on its tail during take-off or suffer a tail scrape on landing.”
The seating plan, Hutchinson explained, is carefully calculated by the flight crew to keep the plane’s nose from tipping ‘up or down’, since it functions much like a seesaw. “Flying safely,” he added, “is all about keeping the aircraft correctly balanced and within its operational centre of gravity (CG).”
Everything on board is positioned with that balance in mind: from crew and passengers, to baggage, cargo, fuel, and even catering. Load planners compute the distribution, and dispatchers confirm it before each flight departs.
So why is moving between seats allowed once you’re airborne?
According to Aviation StackExchange, “one person’s change of position, even for large airplanes, can put the take-off CG outside legal limits and/or safe limits”.
Once the aircraft reaches cruising altitude, however, it’s flying in a steady state: speed stable, altitude constant, configuration fixed. At that point, the effect of small shifts in weight – such as one or two passengers changing seats – becomes negligible relative to the aircraft’s total mass and stability.
Hutchinson additionally notes that the emptier the plane, the more each seat’s occupancy matters. He suggests that weight balance only becomes critical when an aircraft is less than 80 percent full, which explains why some crews are more flexible than others. They need to ensure that specific areas – such as emergency-exit rows – remain occupied to maintain proper weight distribution.
Jay Robert, a former senior cabin crew member with Emirates and founder of Fly Guy’s Cabin Crew Lounge, added that sticking to your seat helps with inner organisation and efficiency inside the cabin: crew can locate passengers quickly, serve the right meals, and deliver messages efficiently. More importantly, in the unlikely event of an emergency, it helps avoid confusion or misidentification.
Even passengers have mixed feelings about switching seats. Leanna Coy, who agreed to swap seats on a United Airlines flight, told the Daily Mail she quickly regretted it, fearing her preloaded payment details and meal preferences were still linked to her original seat. The airline later reassured her that it wasn’t the case.
So next time you spot an inviting empty row before take-off, think twice before you go and grab it.
