A B757 landed overweight because a revised routing saved approximately 5;000 pounds of fuel. The crew and Dispatch missed the overweight condition until a different crew departed and noticed the discrepancy.
Synopsis
A B757 landed overweight because a revised routing saved approximately 5;000 pounds of fuel. The crew and Dispatch missed the overweight condition until a different crew departed and noticed the discrepancy.
Narrative
I was Captain on flight which originated in Mexico. Unknown to me this aircraft landed overweight upon its arrival there. It was not written up at this foreign station as an overweight landing. I do honestly think that the previous crew on the flight did not know that they landed overweight. I flew this aircraft back to our US destination. There was no overweight landing in the logbook. Apparently not until after I arrived in the US did Dispatch find out that the aircraft had landed overweight on the previous flight. As stated above there were not any overweight landing inspections performed. Dispatch had blamed the overweight landing as a result of route error? A double back along the route? A computer programming error? In which the flight required more fuel. Part of the problem if this is the case the Mexican airport has new arrivals and departures that are not in the database of the aircraft at this time. So if they are not in the aircraft database perhaps they are not correctly loaded into the program that Dispatch used for flight and fuel data. If I would have known that the aircraft assigned to me had landed overweight I would of made sure it was written up and had maintenance perform the overweight landing inspection prior to me accepting the aircraft for its flight to the US.
Second reporter narrative
I received a message from a flight enroute to a Mexican station saying the ATC clearance was messed up. I popped it up on the computer and saw where the route went back to the northwest then back southeast direct. I told the crew what I saw and asked him what he showed his landing weight to be. I then built a temporary route without the double back and the flight was 5300 LBS overweight for landing. I sent this information to the aircraft and about the same time he sent a message saying he would not land overweight. The route was 1154 NM and the temporary only 969. Checking to see when the route was built and if other flight had used that routing I found that two other flights were planned on that route. One had departed and one was enroute. In looking at the arrival fuel of the first flight; 28.1K; and adding it to the ZFW 175;085 it looks like it landed 5185 LBS overweight. That aircraft flew and was about to depart from a domestic station. I called the Dispatch Supervisor; he came down to the desk where I explained what I had found and he agreed we should stop the aircraft for an overweight inspection. I sent a message to the crew not to depart and call his Dispatcher. The second flight held for about 25 minutes to make his landing weight. The Route has been corrected.
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Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.