Dispatcher reported miscalculations in passenger court resulted in the aircraft operating in revenue service over it's maximum structural gross weight. The flight crew reviewed their fuel on board and determined that continued flight to destination airport was still acceptable.
Synopsis
Dispatcher reported miscalculations in passenger court resulted in the aircraft operating in revenue service over it's maximum structural gross weight. The flight crew reviewed their fuel on board and determined that continued flight to destination airport was still acceptable.
Narrative
Flight dispatch notified of receiving ACARS communication advising of a passenger count discrepancy based on current passenger finals disclosed on the weight manifest. Dispatch Personnel stated all seats were full of passengers per flight attendants statement on the ACARS communication. A request was made to verify total passengers and the crew confirmed all seats were occupied with 10 kids on board.After revising weights; a weight change of 21;266 pounds was generated placing the aircraft over structural limitations and unable to generate a legal weight manifest. This weight adjustment represented 3.97% change from the original takeoff weight. PERCENT adjusted -3.8. Due to the extra passenger weight the Dispatcher and flight crew discussed diversion options due to [remaining fuel]. Crew opted to continue on to final destination.XA:06z - Passenger hand off into AWBS (Automated Weight and Balance System). Total passengers - 150.XA:13z - Weights sent.XA:31z - Wheels up.XA:51z - Passenger totals updated; Passengers onboard.Unable to generate weights for being over structural limitations by 1;803 lbs. This is a third occurrence involving a programmatic anomaly with passenger count discrepancies between SHARES passenger hand off into the AWBS. (issue first reported on DATE). This is a third occurrence being reported with incorrect passenger counts received by the AWBS triggering significant weight changes after takeoff; Aircraft X; 6;464 lbs weight change and Aircraft X; 4;444 lbs weight change.
Second reporter narrative
Approximately 3 hours into the flight I received an ACARS from the crew stating that they were over burning. A few minutes later another ACARS saying their final weights showed 162 souls on board; (150 passenger 12 crew) but the FA said that it was a completely full flight. I took this information to the Load Planning Manager on duty. We proceeded to dig for further information about how this could be. Somehow the final weight manifest reflected an erroneous passenger count of 107 fewer passengers than actuality. The system also did not alert the load planner or dispatcher of a weight change before automatically sending the incorrect final weight manifest to the crew. This extra weight of 107 passengers increased the actual ZFW above structural maximum ZFW. Upon discovering this I informed the [Dispatch Supervisor] of the situation and updated the crew to our findings and discussed the possibility of diverting to ZZZ1 for more fuel or continuing on to ZZZ. Even though we would be burning into reserves; due to the extra weight; we determined that we had enough fuel to safely continue to ZZZ with the option to divert to ZZZ2 if a need arose.
Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.