Strange pilot announcement at take off

Flana

Just got off flight from Spain,
At start of flight pilot said
"Can all passengers take their correct seat as we are operating at critical trim level"

Furthermore we were met at the plane door on arrival by GArda and immigration and you could not get off plane until passport displayed.

Any clues or thoughts to whats going on here ???

FoxyVixen

Looking for someone trying to skip the country?!

Flana

Skip SPain, why let them on and why trim level message

zagmund

If it was someone like Aer Lingus or Iberia with assigned seating then it was presumably because the Gardai wanted to nab someone in a specific seat (for whatever reason). If the Gardai checked everyones passport getting off the plane it's because the person wasn't sitting in their assigned seat. If they had been sitting in their assigned seat the Gardai would have come on the plane, stomped down to seat 17F (or wherever) and asked that person for their passport. Since there was nobody in the seat they had to check everyones passport.

The pilots announcement was just to give a reason for everyone to remain in their seats - as a ruse/cover - so that the problem person could be located.

Why let them on . . . well, presumably it was the Gardai who wanted the person (for an offence or investigation in Ireland) and not the Spanish police who wanted the person.

z

Fratton Fred

Were there many people on the flight?

If the flight is only half full they need to balance out the weight.

Not sure about the gards though, maybe just a random check?

chalkitdown

Getting people to take their assigned seats because of trim probably means that it was carrying a lot of cargo.

Plazaman

AFAIK Trim Level, especially for smaller planes, balances out the plane where you need an equal number of passengers of both sides of the plane (obviously if everyone was sitting on the left, there'd be a balance problem).

The fact that most passengers wouldn't have a clue that this is it (a) Sounds nice and technical and important enough for everyone to obey the instructions and (b) as Zagmund said probably also a ruse to get John Q Dodgy back in his/her seat so the cops can quickly locate them.

Flana

My thoughts are same as zags, just wanted to sound out.
Cheers