Narrative:

[Captain and I] operated from ZZZ to ZZZ1. On this flight we had MEL 29-11-xx; which was for an inoperative hydraulic pump 1B. This MEL required our minimum flight weight to be above 38;500lbs. Our flight load for this particular flight was extremely light with 3 pax; 1 [standard] bag; 0 heavy bags; 1 plane side bag and 300 lbs of ballast. Along with excess fuel to help our weight we landed roughly at 38;900 pounds; giving us only 400 pounds of useable fuel on the plane; not enough for the 45 minute reserve buffer; planned at 2099lbs; legally required under IFR.this was my first time experiencing this MEL and I saw the extra fuel for the MEL on the release and after considering the light passenger load both myself and the captain concluded that we were going to be close to our minimum flight weight upon landing so he asked the fueler to add 300lbs of fuel and 300lbs of ballast to help pad our landing weight; but at the time we both failed to consider the reserve fuel and it was not until I mentioned at a later date that we would have been below our flight weight if we had to go around. At this point he realized we did not have our proper reserve fuel. We had plenty of fuel in the tank but we would have not been in compliance with the new limitation in place set by the MEL.possibly more awareness on the flight plan of low passenger flights in conjunction for this MEL or a separate fuel column on the release when the fuel is to be used as weight so the crew can consider the fuel as unusable.

Google
 

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: CRJ200 First Officer reported landing below minimum fuel requirements.

Narrative: [Captain and I] operated from ZZZ to ZZZ1. On this flight we had MEL 29-11-XX; which was for an inoperative hydraulic pump 1B. This MEL required our minimum flight weight to be above 38;500lbs. Our flight load for this particular flight was extremely light with 3 Pax; 1 [standard] bag; 0 Heavy bags; 1 plane side bag and 300 lbs of ballast. Along with excess fuel to help our weight we landed roughly at 38;900 pounds; giving us only 400 pounds of useable fuel on the plane; not enough for the 45 minute reserve buffer; planned at 2099lbs; legally required under IFR.This was my first time experiencing this MEL and I saw the extra fuel for the MEL on the release and after considering the light passenger load both myself and the Captain concluded that we were going to be close to our minimum flight weight upon landing so he asked the fueler to add 300lbs of fuel and 300lbs of ballast to help pad our landing weight; but at the time we both failed to consider the reserve fuel and it was not until I mentioned at a later date that we would have been below our flight weight if we had to go around. At this point he realized we did not have our proper reserve fuel. We had plenty of fuel in the tank but we would have not been in compliance with the new limitation in place set by the MEL.Possibly more awareness on the flight plan of low passenger flights in conjunction for this MEL or a separate fuel column on the release when the fuel is to be used as weight so the crew can consider the fuel as unusable.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.