The Boeing 747 departed Cairns with a loadsheet showing its
takeoff weight as 316,500 kg and its landing weight at Narita as
241,500 kg. During descent, company staff at Narita advised the
crew to amend the aircraft's landing weight to 243,200 kg, the
difference being due to 1,850 kg of cargo stowed in position 11
that had been recorded incorrectly.
Company staff identified a unit load device (ULD) weighing 950
kg, which had been packed in Sydney and transported to Cairns. At
Cairns, the weight of the ULD was wrongly recorded as 1,850 kg. The
reason for the error was not established, but it was possible that
loading staff at Cairns may have pulled an old weight tag from the
ULD tag pouch and noted the weight written on it.
The incorrect weight of 1,850 kg was then transcribed as 185 kg
onto a `deadweight statement' (baggage and cargo weight) which was
sent to Load Control three hours before scheduled departure.
Coincidentally, 185 kg was the weight of an empty ULD. The load
controller used 185 kg as the ULD weight in preparing the Load
Instruction Report (LIR) for the Cairns loading staff, but they did
not detect the discrepancy between the ULD tag weight (1,850 kg)
and the LIR weight (185 kg). As the load controller had used 185 kg
in the load calculations, both the Provisional Loadsheet and the
Final Loadsheet understated the aircraft gross weight.
While the aircraft was in transit, company staff at Narita
queried the ULD weight with the load controller, who then contacted
the Cairns freight staff. Three hours before the aircraft was due
to land, the freight staff sent a revised deadweight statement to
the load controller, showing the ULD weight as 1,850 kg. The load
controller then recalculated the load weight and passed this to the
company staff at Narita, who in turn advised the crew to increase
the aircraft landing weight by 1,700 kg. As the actual weight of
the ULD was 950 kg, the revised landing weight overstated the true
landing weight by 750 kg.
Since the occurrence, the company Freight Branch has issued a
reminder to freight terminal staff to remove old weight tags from
ULDs and has asked the Cairns freight staff to take action to
prevent incorrect completion of deadweight statement forms. In
addition, the Ramp Training and Safety Co-ordinator at Cairns has
issued a notice to loading staff to check all weights on ULD tags
against the weights stated on the LIR.