Narrative:

We were faced with an airplane change; maintenance items found on preflight; pressure for on-time departure plus a hazmat conflict. Departed gate with the hazmat question unresolved. Ultimately returned to gate and discovered hazmat had been loaded without paperwork to crew. The first officer returned from his walkaround with two hazmat forms. The ACARS printout and planned weight manifest both indicated hazmat -no quantities noted on those forms. ACARS printed out planned dangerous goods summary with three (3) dangerous goods items noted which conflicted with the two (2) forms in our possession. We advised operations of the problems. We were assured that there were three items planned but only two items arrived in time to be boarded and that the final information would reflect two hazmat items.after departing the blocks the final dangerous goods summary printed via ACARS showing three dangerous goods items. Called zone and they assured us it was a mix up and that a corrected version was coming. We soon received another final dangerous goods form; still showing three items. Upon return to gate discovered that three items had been loaded and that the notification form was still attached to the third package that contained 40lbs of dry ice. That package matched the information on the ACARS final dangerous goods summary. [It] appears that this hazmat was not handled or loaded properly. The flight crew was not notified properly. The station did all they could to encourage the crew to depart the station and potentially fly coast to coast with unknown hazmat on the aircraft.pressure to depart on-time with new minimum fuel boarded policy pushed the flight crew to taxi towards the runway with hazmat still in question. If operations was correct and we did not have the hazmat in question on board then we needed to get to the runway and takeoff before we consumed the allotted taxi fuel. If we delayed another 200 pounds of fuel burn we would have had to return to the gate for fuel anyway. The station could not determine the hazmat status so we returned to the gate and discovered hazmat onboard. Ultimately; the flight ran late and arrived late 31 minutes. The flight crew was reassigned to a different schedule due to the late flight; over 8 hour projection and minimum time layover.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An A320 flight crew felt pressured to depart with conflicting Hazardous Materials data.

Narrative: We were faced with an airplane change; maintenance items found on preflight; pressure for on-time departure PLUS a HAZMAT conflict. Departed gate with the HAZMAT question unresolved. Ultimately returned to gate and discovered HAZMAT had been loaded without paperwork to crew. The First Officer returned from his walkaround with two HAZMAT forms. The ACARS printout and Planned Weight Manifest both indicated HAZMAT -no quantities noted on those forms. ACARS printed out PLANNED DANGEROUS GOODS SUMMARY with three (3) dangerous goods items noted which conflicted with the two (2) forms in our possession. We advised operations of the problems. We were assured that there were three items planned but only two items arrived in time to be boarded and that the final information would reflect two HAZMAT items.After departing the blocks the FINAL DANGEROUS GOODS SUMMARY printed via ACARS showing three Dangerous Goods items. Called Zone and they assured us it was a mix up and that a corrected version was coming. We soon received another FINAL Dangerous Goods form; still showing three items. Upon return to gate discovered that three items had been loaded and that the notification form was still attached to the third package that contained 40lbs of dry ice. That package matched the information on the ACARS FINAL DANGEROUS GOODS SUMMARY. [It] appears that this HAZMAT was not handled or loaded properly. The flight crew was not notified properly. The station did all they could to encourage the crew to depart the station and potentially fly coast to coast with unknown HAZMAT on the aircraft.Pressure to depart on-time with new minimum fuel boarded policy pushed the Flight Crew to taxi towards the runway with HAZMAT still in question. If operations was correct and we did not have the HAZMAT in question on board then we needed to get to the runway and takeoff before we consumed the allotted taxi fuel. If we delayed another 200 pounds of fuel burn we would have had to return to the gate for fuel anyway. The station could not determine the HAZMAT status so we returned to the gate and discovered HAZMAT onboard. Ultimately; the flight ran late and arrived late 31 minutes. The Flight Crew was reassigned to a different schedule due to the late flight; over 8 hour projection and minimum time layover.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.