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Can aircraft not have load sensors installed in the undercarriage? That would love the need for guessing the weight.

The PDF states that they somehow knew the actual weight of the airplane.

Which make you wonder why they still use the estimated weight when they can have the actual one.

Because as @syberspace stated above, and I pointed out below, the ground crew needs a weight figure to plan some things prior to loading/boarding (at least cargo distribution in the cargo hold and amount of fuel to place into the fuel tanks).

To use actual weight when individual passengers weights are unavailable (as in this case) would require first boarding all passengers, then waiting at the gate while the fuel tanks are filled and the cargo in the hold is loaded and distributed based on the actual passenger weight. The passengers would not want to wait for this loading order, nor would the airlines as it would directly increase their turn around time for the aircraft.

they do. which is how they figured out the discrepancy between estimated and actual weight. but they do need to estimate the weight to plan the loading of baggage and cargo, e.g. more male adults in the back of the plane means cargo will prefarably be put in the front of the hold and vice versa.

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