2023-10 · NASA ASRS report 2041023
Air carrier flight crew reported receiving a series of contradicting communications regarding whether or not Hazmat Cargo was loaded on board during the pre-flight. After discussions with Operations and Dispatch; it was determined Hazmat was loaded and the aircraft departed.
During his exterior preflight; the FO received a NOTOC from the crew chief indicating that we would have dangerous goods on board. Two packages of dry ice at 5kg each in forward cargo. He was told that the shipment had not yet arrived. At departure time when we were about to push I queried the tug driver about the shipment and whether or not we had received it. He said NO we did not have any DG onboard. We pushed and while taxiing to [Runway] XXC the load closeout printed; indicating YES we had DG in forward cargo. We coordinated with ground and set the parking brake short of the runway. I called our dispatcher who was also unaware of any DG. After discussion with ops and our dispatcher; we concluded that yes in fact DG had been loaded. I communicated the ID number to our dispatcher and he provided this to load planning. We departed without further interruption.Cause: This is the second time I have seen an event like this unfold in the past several years. In my opinion the root cause of the problem is that the ground personal providing the NOTOC is simply trying to save themselves a walk up the jet-bridge. The NOTOC should not be provided to the flight crew until the DG has already arrived and is actually being loaded onto the aircraft. Neither the flight deck crew or the dispatcher received a pre-notification of DG.Suggestions: The pre-notification seems to be a good barrier to such a situation; but I'm not sure why we never received it. And it's not required; perhaps it should be. The NOTOC should not be delivered until the DG have actually arrived and have been loaded; and the NOTOC should be delivered to the flight deck afterwards.
While completing the exterior preflight; I received a NOTOC from the crew chief indicating that we would have dangerous goods on board. Two packages of dry ice at 5kg each in forward cargo. I was told that the shipment had not yet arrived. At departure time when we were about to push the CA queried the tug driver about the shipment and whether or not we had received it. He said NO we did not have any DG onboard. We pushed and while taxiing to [Runway] XXC the load closeout printed; indicating YES we had DG in forward cargo. We coordinated with ground and set the parking brake short of the runway. The CA called our dispatcher who was also unaware of any DG. After discussion with ops and our dispatcher; we concluded that yes in fact DG had been loaded. The CA communicated the ID number to our dispatcher and he provided this to load planning. We departed without further interruption.Cause: This is the second time I have experienced an event like this in the past two years. In my opinion the root cause of the problem is that the ground personal providing the NOTOC is simply trying to save themselves a walk up the jet-bridge. The NOTOC should not be provided to the flight crew until the DG has already arrived and is actually being loaded onto the aircraft. Neither the flight deck crew or the dispatcher received a pre-notification of DG.Suggestions: The NOTOC should not be provided to the flight crew until the DG has already arrived and is actually being loaded onto the aircraft. There should be an auto NOTOC issued for every DG; not optional. Any change in DG number for the same shipment should invalidate current NOTOC and generate new auto NOTOC. DG terminology should be standardized between flight crew and ground crew. Crew chief should cancel any and all NOTOCs if the DG does not arrive.
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Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.
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