TUI airline classifies women as children

A software upgrade by TUI Airways which classified female passengers whose title was 'Miss' as children led to a 'serious incident' on a Birmingham-Majorca flight. The mis-classification meant that the average weight of these female passengers used for take-off calculations for the Boeing 737 jet was 1,244 kg lighter than it actually was, potentially having an impact on take-off thrust. An investigation into the incident by the UK government’s Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) said the problem occurred after the flight reservation sheet had been updated while the airline was grounded due to COVID-19. According to the BBC , safety officials said the problem was that the software had been programmed in a foreign country where 'Miss' is used to refer to children, and 'Ms' to adult women. The flight proved safe and the fault identified in TUI's IT system was later corrected. TUI also introduced manual checks to ensure adult females were referred to as Ms on relevant documentation. System 🤖 Developer: Country: UK Sector: Transport/logistics Purpose: Calculate airline weight Technology: Departure control system Issue: Accountability; Accuracy/reliability Investigations, assessments, audits 👁️ Air Accidents Investigation Branch. AAIB investigation to Boeing 737-8K5, G-TAWG 21 July 2020

Date it happened

2020-07-01

Organisation involved

TUI Group/TUI Airways

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