Air carrier flight crew reported the transport of undocumented Hazmat cargo. At destination unloading; it was discovered that in addition to the unloaded Dry ice; a parcel of lithium batteries was also discovered.
Synopsis
Air carrier flight crew reported the transport of undocumented Hazmat cargo. At destination unloading; it was discovered that in addition to the unloaded Dry ice; a parcel of lithium batteries was also discovered.
Narrative
This morning; we pushed back and taxied out to Runway 30 when we were told to return to the gate due to our dangerous goods (dry ice) being improperly secured. Upon returning to the gate; the rampers and Dulles operations decided to remove all DG from the aircraft since it was causing them confusion on which box had DG in it. It was later verbally confirmed that all DG was removed from the aircraft from both our ground crew and [airport] operations. We never sent for another DG verification upon our second pushback since we were told all DG was removed from the aircraft. After takeoff; we noticed that we had received a DG receipt stating that we still had dry ice on the aircraft after being told it was all removed. We contacted our Dispatcher who also stated we had dry ice on. When landing; the Captain went out to verify with the rampers in ZZZ1 to confirm if we had DG onboard which they said we did; and lithium batteries which we were unaware of. We tried to message [airport] operations to clarify the confusion in flight through ACARS; but received no reply.
Second reporter narrative
Flight XXXX had dangerous goods on board. We received the final DG sent msg and departed the gate. We then did not receive the weights and pulled into the run up block by Runway 30 ZZZ. While waiting; ground control advised operations requested us to return to the gate. Operations was contacted and advised us to return to gate because their was an issue with the DG being properly secured.We returned to the gate and both forward and aft cargo bins were opened. The forward was closed and work continued in the aft cargo bin. We were at the gate for an extended time. During this time I was keeping the passengers advised and also communicating with operations via the radio and when connected to headsets the ramp personnel. The cargo bins were closed and we were waiting again for final. In communication with operations we were told the additional delay was for ramp to confirmed what they had done with load planning. Then the doors were opened again. We queried operations again and were told that they did not have enough bags to cover the DG. That now the extended time at gate was due to removal of the bags to remove the freight; then reload the bags. I was told that they were removing all the freight because they could not identify the box that needed to be covered. I specifically asked confirmation operations and from the ground push crew that all freight was removed I was told yes; all freight removed.The subsequent push and taxi out was completed by the crew as if we did not have any dangerous goods on board. Our final weights were delayed again. When they did arrive they had reduced close to the amount of DG we thought was removed. The message also did not include a dangerous goods message at the bottom. With the arrival of weights; our attention was directed to final preparations for takeoff and completing the before takeoff procedures. It was not until climb out that the additional final dangerous goods message had also printed with the final weight message on the ground.This event happened because the crew was under the belief that all dangerous goods were removed from the flight and this printout was not necessary.
More incidents for this aircraft family →
Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.