What happened
On October 26, 2009, a charter flight, designated RLS-9607, was scheduled to depart from Moscow (Vnukovo-3, UUWW) for Minsk (Minsk-2, UMMS). The aircraft, a BAe-125-800B with registration RA-02807, operated by S-Air, was carrying a total of 5 people: two pilots, one flight attendant, and two passengers, all of whom were Russian citizens. The recorded commercial payload, consisting of passengers, was 170kg, and there was no baggage, cargo, or mail on board.
The investigation
An examination of the flight documentation revealed several critical omissions and errors during the pre-flight phase. While the crew completed their pre-flight medical checks and received meteorological briefings at Vnukovo, the weight and balance paperwork was incomplete. Specifically, the crew failed to submit the center of gravity chart to the appropriate airport services at Vnukovo-3. Furthermore, the load manifest only accounted for the commercial payload, omitting the weight of the aircraft in its prepared state and the total fuel quantity at takeoff. Because of these omissions, the actual takeoff mass and the maximum allowable commercial payload could not be definitively determined.
Despite these documentation failures, the estimated takeoff mass was approximately 11,050kg with a center of gravity of 20.7% MAC, and the estimated landing mass was approximately 10,000kg with a center of gravity of 20.0%. Both of these estimated figures fell within the operational limits specified in the BAe-125-800B flight manual. The investigation noted that the failure to provide a complete weight and balance profile to airport authorities was a primary procedural discrepancy.