How does Southwest Airline get away with not assigning seats?

Question

I mean, what would happen in the event of a terrorist attack or an accident? How would they know who was sitting where? Or if it was a terrorist act, then who actually did it?

Answer 1

In Business Management one learns that purpose of a business is " to make a profit" Southwest, one of the few airlines turning a profit, sometimes has ten minute turn arounds.  Seat assignment is distributed for weight and balance.  They, toward the end of last year, introduced this hurry up style of boarding.   For so many short flights it would be a waste.  Seat assignments cause seat "dupes", problems with the emergency exit aisle, bulkheads, etc.  By checking in ahead of time on Southwest.com you can be one of the first to be seated in your section in the plane.   Southwest has had only one mishap...at Burbank when it overshot the runway.

Answer 2

They can only do that on domestic flights anyway. But I do agree w/ u. I really hate that cattle call boarding they have. They only have the master manifest of who actually boarded the plane. Most terrorist want their name published after their attacks to ensure everyone knows they did it. So even after the fact, the authorities are quick to put the finger on who did what irregardless of seating assignment.

Answer 3

As far as terrorist taking over the aircraft, they could force people to relocate their seats anyways.

Answer 4

Who's sitting where is not important; even with assigned seats, one doesn't have to remain there.  Surely you've moved from say a center seat to one on the aisle in a different row.

Determining who "did" the terrorist act is easy-terrorists WILL claim responsibility, they destroy aircraft to get media attention and focus on their cause.  

A master manifest has all those who checked in for the flight.  In the event of accident, if everyone dies, then the manifest, plus any personal items on the corpse(s) are used for ID.  This has to be done via forensic means, for insurance and inheritance purposes.  In your scenario, also for possible criminal proceedings.

A list of who was SUPPOSED to be sitting where is not sufficient.  

Survivors are ID'd by themselves if consciousness, or via personal possessions if not.

Answer 5

Cameras. and word of mouth.

Answer 6

How would they keep you in an assigned seat? Lock the seatbelt? Jeez. Even the pilots were not in their "assigned" seats on 9/11. Besides, there's no number on the seat anyway. Seat numbers are overhead and the seats aren't going to stay on the seat tracks in an accident that kills everybody are they. They'll be scattered everywhere after a crash. Southwest gets away with it because they are the most business savvy airline in the world.