MovieChat Forums > Greenland (2020) Discussion > The small plane at the end was overloade...

The small plane at the end was overloaded. (spoiler)

posted 4 years ago by voltaire2121 (357)
16 replies | jump to latest

Gerald Butler blocks the plane's take off at the end with his car and demands the pilot take him and his family. The pilot informs GB that the plane is already overloaded, and he would endanger the lives of everyone on board if he took on anymore weight. There's a bit of back and forth with them saying just take the kid... then all of a sudden the pilot relents and agrees to take all of them. WTF?!

This is plainly negligent and reckless of the pilot. I am thinking of the plane crash that took Aaliyah. These rules are not there to be carelessly circumvented. The maximum load capacity of the plane is there for a reason.

The pilot should know this. What's the point of the pilot taking them and killing everyone on board? And GB shouldn't be pressurising the pilot. Instead, he should have simply asked the pilot to do a quick risk assessment of taking on the additional 15kg weight of his son.

And WTF didn't anyone onboard object? He was endangering the lives of everyone onboard.

[–] [deleted] 4 years ago

I don't know if it was intentional on the part of the writing, but earlier in the movie we watched Butler abandon his neighbour's child. So, it was ironic that the movie came full circle to him asking the pilot to take their child.

I think it points out that in an end-of-world scenario, all bets are off. The pilot could have/should have left him and his family, but, unlike Butler, he couldn't overcome his conscience.

Was it the right decision? Who's to say? It looked like they were going to make it, til they got caught in the blast wave.

[–] voltaire2121 (357) 4 years ago

Think of the Aaliyah plane crash. If the maximum load has been exceeded, then no, the piliot should not risk the lives of everyone on board. As for what happened after, that's just fictitious nonsense, as a rule of thumb, do not overload the plane or everyone will die.

[–] [deleted] 4 years ago

Unless you are an qualified aeronautical engineer who can tell me otherwise, I'm going to assume with certainty that planes has a certain margin of safety built in. I'm a naval architect -- ships -- myself and I'm can say with 99% certainty that this holds true for any form of transportation.

So the pilot made a judgement call in the most extreme of circumstances... for the purposes of the story, it was fine.

If the movie ended with them evaporating in a fireball as they watch the plane fly away because the pilot said no, would you really be here saying: "Man, so glad this movie got it RIGHT!"?

[–] voltaire2121 (357) 4 years ago

I'm a qualified aeronautical engineer and registered pilot. Believe me when I say, do not exceed the maximum load of a plane lest you and everyone on board suffer the consequences, ie, DEATH.

[–] [deleted] 4 years ago

From a quick Google search:

"You have two (2) main load types in aerospace: loads from general aircraft use and loads from ultimate flight conditions. The margin of safety should be greater than zero for all cases, but the former loads are multiplied by a 1.5 factor when calculating the margin of safety and the latter are unfactored. Margin of safety is defined as:

MS = Allowable load / (Load Factor * Actual load) - 1

For ultimate cases, this reduces to:

MS (ultimate) = Allowable load / Actual load - 1

What this means is that for determining if a given aircraft component is acceptable, the type of load will play a large part in this. For cruising, common banks, takeoff, landing, &c. the 1.5 load factor should be applied to the calculated load. For maximum g pull-outs at sea level, landing with reduced engine power, and other conditions, no load factor should be applied and provided the MS is greater than zero, the part can be substantiated."

As a qualified engineer and pilot, what's your take on the above explanation?

[–] voltaire2121 (357) 4 years ago

You really are a nonce. Did you not read what I wrote?

[–] [deleted] 4 years ago

I did. Enough to know that you aren't an engineer and that you aren't a pilot.

Some sort of compulsive disorder?

[–] [deleted] 2 years ago

He has a small dick, apparently.

[–] jeffsayyes (157) 4 years ago

that's a good point. it must have been intentional. The pilot should have shot them.

[–] Who (5146) 4 years ago

Maybe the pilot threw out a few pieces of cargo. But I don’t think the plane crash was entirely caused by a heavy payload. The shock waves from the meteorite impacts caused instability. They were almost all the way there before the plane went down.

Yes, I think the story came full circle with the “take my kid” scenarios.

[–] voltaire2121 (357) 4 years ago

If the pilot could throw some cargo off and reduce the load, then okay, otherwise, GB and family can F off. Endangering the lives of everyone on board is NOT okay. If I were a passenger, I would object and tell him to F off.

[–] Supratad (139) 4 years ago

By the time they got to Greenland, a lot of weight would be gone in spent fuel, so although they transgressed a few safety margins with regard to weight, it got better for them.
Though they might have been on the ground when the shockwave hit if they hadn't been stopped before takeoff and had a brief argument on the runway.

[–] tsrt (1177) 4 years ago

Yeah, it was probably for the "take my kid" effect. Still, they could have at least shown the pilots throwing out cargo. Taking on three more passengers when you're already at maximum capacity is crazy...in real life anyway.

[–] Diddy1111 (411) 4 years ago

The movie made sure to have the one scene where GB helps the guy out of the burning car under the bridge so we don’t just think he’s a selfish ass that doesn’t care about anyone but his family (when he’s not cheating on his wife at least). When he is he definitely just cares about himself.

[–] Geiri (864) 4 years ago

And the bitchy wife was suddenly all in love with him again when she realized she needed him for survival lol

[–] Strazdas (2472) 2 years ago

>This is plainly negligent and reckless of the pilot. I am thinking of the plane crash that took Aaliyah. These rules are not there to be carelessly circumvented. The maximum load capacity of the plane is there for a reason.

Its less than 12 hours till the end of the fucking world, i think we can forgive a bit of negligence if it means the plane can actually take off.

>The pilot should know this. What's the point of the pilot taking them and killing everyone on board?

A chance he wont kill everyone on board as opposed to staying put and everyone dying for certain.

>And WTF didn't anyone onboard object? He was endangering the lives of everyone onboard.

To them it is more of a situation where they think they are helping and the passengers dont know the technicalities. Its like airlines cannot charge someone extra if they weight 400 lbs even though they are significantly impacting the costs of the flight. "humanity" overrides logic.