Narrative:

Aircraft was delayed up line. Crew was trying to make up time enroute and arrived only to hold short of the gate for fourteen minutes because the station agents would not come out to park the flight. This caused some very negative feedback toward the cockpit and cabin crew from the passengers as they deplaned. This also delayed the flight crew in contacting maintenance control to deal with an issue. Station agents indicated that; since they were short-handed; they did not want to park us because 'that would start the clock on when they had to have the checked bags on the baggage claim belt.' and that they didn't want to miss that metric. Since there was a maintenance delay involved; crew requested that the station connect external conditioned air only to be told that the cart was inoperative and had been for some time. Once the contract maintenance had corrected the issue; boarding was commenced. Upon receipt of the cargo loading form; discrepancies were noted in both the passenger count and in the baggage distribution. The cargo loading form indicated thirty seven standard checked; two heavy checked and twenty nine valet bags as all being loaded in the aft baggage area. Also; the passenger count indicated 65 total with 60 adults; two children and three infants. This did not correspond to the flight attendants count. Since the flight crew had just observed numerous valet bags being loaded in the fwd baggage compartment; the agents were questioned about the accuracy of the report. An amended cargo loading form was provided and indicated twenty four valet bags in the fwd bin and thirty seven standard checked; two heavy checked and five valet in the aft baggage bin. Additionally; the passenger count was amended to 65 total with 63 adults; two children and three infants which matched the flight attendant count. ACARS information was programmed and transmitted and crew received valid takeoff data. What is being done to ensure that the field stations are adequately staffed to support our operations? Why is it more important to keep a full airplane waiting to park and angering the passengers than to get the bags to the claim belt? Why does the station not have adequate employees to support operations? What is being done to hold the station accountable for gross; dangerous errors on the cargo loading form? There was extreme potential to take off with a dangerously out-of-trim situation which could have resulted in aircraft control difficulties. Initiate disciplinary action against station agents for incorrect information on the cargo loading form and have those employees de-certified and retrained.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A CRJ700 was not marshaled to the gate upon arrival because of a ground crew shortage. Before departure the passenger and baggage load sheet had to be redone because of an extreme load inaccuracy.

Narrative: Aircraft was delayed up line. Crew was trying to make up time enroute and arrived only to hold short of the gate for fourteen minutes because the station agents would not come out to park the flight. This caused some VERY negative feedback toward the cockpit and cabin crew from the passengers as they deplaned. This also delayed the flight crew in contacting Maintenance Control to deal with an issue. Station agents indicated that; since they were short-handed; they did not want to park us because 'That would start the clock on when they had to have the checked bags on the Baggage Claim belt.' and that they didn't want to miss that metric. Since there was a maintenance delay involved; crew requested that the station connect external conditioned air only to be told that the cart was inoperative and had been for some time. Once the contract maintenance had corrected the issue; boarding was commenced. Upon receipt of the cargo loading form; discrepancies were noted in both the passenger count and in the baggage distribution. The cargo loading form indicated thirty seven Standard Checked; two Heavy Checked and twenty nine Valet Bags as all being loaded in the AFT Baggage area. Also; the passenger count indicated 65 total with 60 adults; two children and three infants. This did not correspond to the Flight Attendants count. Since the Flight Crew had just observed numerous Valet Bags being loaded in the FWD Baggage compartment; the agents were questioned about the accuracy of the report. An amended cargo loading form was provided and indicated twenty four Valet Bags in the FWD bin and thirty seven Standard Checked; two Heavy Checked and five Valet in the AFT Baggage bin. Additionally; the passenger count was amended to 65 total with 63 Adults; two Children and three Infants which matched the Flight Attendant Count. ACARS information was programmed and transmitted and crew received valid takeoff data. What is being done to ensure that the field stations are adequately staffed to support our operations? Why is it more important to keep a full airplane waiting to park and angering the passengers than to get the bags to the claim belt? Why does the station not have adequate employees to support operations? What is being done to hold the station accountable for gross; dangerous errors on the cargo loading form? There was extreme potential to take off with a dangerously out-of-trim situation which could have resulted in aircraft control difficulties. Initiate disciplinary action against station agents for incorrect information on the Cargo Loading Form and have those employees De-Certified and retrained.

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.