| Occurrence Briefs are concise reports that detail the facts surrounding a transport safety occurrence, as received in the initial notification and any follow-up enquiries. They provide an opportunity to share safety messages in the absence of an investigation. |
What happened
On 18 November 2018 an Airbus A330-202 aircraft was being operated on a scheduled passenger flight from Jakarta, Indonesia, to Sydney, New South Wales.
During take-off, the flight crew detected improper adjustment to the trim controls. After take-off, the flight crew received an aircraft communications addressing and reporting system (ACARS) message advising that there was a discrepancy between the weight of a loaded cargo pallet on the load sheet and the actual weight of the pallet.
During the loading of the aircraft, all pallets had been packed and weighed correctly. The Load Control system requires a ground handler to enter the load data (pallet weights) into an electronic messaging system for transmission to the regional load control who generate the aircraft load sheet and load instruction report. The ground handler made an error when entering this data.
Therefore, the final load sheet had included a cargo pallet that was 3,000 kg whereas the actual weight of the pallet was 2,000 kg. This resulted in the zero fuel weight (ZFW) used being 1,000 kg heavier than the actual ZFW. The stabilizer setting from the final load sheet was 4.4 up, but should have been 4.7 up. The crew reported that the out of trim condition was evident during rotation.
Safety action
As a result of this incident, the operator has advised the ATSB that they are taking the following safety action:
The ground handling agent has added the requirement for a second ground handler to cross- check data entry prior to transmission. Freight scanning has been introduced in a number of airports, and is to be introduced across the whole network including in Jakarta. This will assist in identifying errors such as this.
Safety message
This occurrence highlights the importance of cross-checking all container, pallet and baggage weights when loading an aircraft. The use of a second person or an electronic system will assist in reducing these types of data entry errors. ATSB research report, Aircraft loading occurrences July 2003 to June 2010 (AR-2010-044), documents the number and types of safety occurrences involving the loading of high-capacity aircraft to raise awareness within the industry of the associated issues.
About this report
Decisions regarding whether to conduct an investigation, and the scope of an investigation, are based on many factors, including the level of safety benefit likely to be obtained from an investigation. For this occurrence, no investigation has been conducted and the ATSB did not verify the accuracy of the information. A brief description has been written using information supplied in the notification and any follow-up information in order to produce a short summary report, and allow for greater industry awareness of potential safety issues and possible safety actions.