Narrative:

We departed the domestic station on time and arrived at our technical stop to refuel the aircraft and continue to our south american destination. The I.right.O; while doing all the weight and balance forms and checking the runway analysis; noticed when the flight plan arrived and we started working on the weight and balance that the block fuel was 79;000 kgs. I told the captain based on temperature of 30*C at the moment; we were overweight and he proceeded to review the runway analysis and flight plan for runway xx NOTAM under the additional folder and he concurred and proceeded to call dispatch and discussed the issue and come into the agreement to only take 77;000 kgs which made the takeoff 271;000 kgs maximum allowed for runway xx NOTAM. After approximately an hour and twenty minutes the refuel was completed. By then the runway changed due to temperature increase and winds shift. Now temperature was 35*C; winds 320 @ 08 knots. Runway xy with this the penalty was even bigger since the runway is uphill by .7%. The data for that runway as approximately 254;400 mtgw; the difference now exceeded 15;000 kgs. The captain once again called dispatch to inform them [of the] situation and offer some solutions; one of them [being to] leave some pallets at this airport for [the] next scheduled airplane to pick-up so we could leave with no more delay or the entire crew could go to the hotel and wait for the temperature to come down to 30 degrees and the leave. This temperature was expected to happen around 2000 to 2200 local. After all the telephone conversations between the captain with the chief pilots; the decision was made under the captain's authority to go to the hotel and he informed his decision to dispatch and the chief pilot and we; his crew; supported his decision. The chief pilot was pushing the flight crew to continue the flight regardless of the overweight situation and when we followed the captain to the hotel; later we were replaced by another crew who flew in from a domestic base and as a consequence of this we also had a financial lost. The captain was bullied and we were all reprimanded for not taking the flight which was not legal to depart under the weight and temperature at the aerodrome.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A MD-11 crew was replaced after they refused to fly the aircraft which was overweight because of a high; mid day ambient temperature.

Narrative: We departed the domestic station on time and arrived at our technical stop to refuel the aircraft and continue to our South American destination. The I.R.O; while doing all the weight and balance forms and checking the runway analysis; noticed when the flight plan arrived and we started working on the weight and balance that the block fuel was 79;000 KGS. I told the Captain based on temperature of 30*C at the moment; we were overweight and he proceeded to review the runway analysis and flight plan for Runway XX NOTAM under the additional folder and he concurred and proceeded to call Dispatch and discussed the issue and come into the agreement to only take 77;000 KGS which made the takeoff 271;000 KGS maximum allowed for Runway XX NOTAM. After approximately an hour and twenty minutes the refuel was completed. By then the runway changed due to temperature increase and winds shift. Now temperature was 35*C; winds 320 @ 08 knots. Runway XY with this the penalty was even bigger since the runway is uphill by .7%. The data for that runway as approximately 254;400 MTGW; the difference now exceeded 15;000 KGS. The Captain once again called Dispatch to inform them [of the] situation and offer some solutions; one of them [being to] leave some pallets at this airport for [the] next scheduled airplane to pick-up so we could leave with no more delay or the entire crew could go to the hotel and wait for the temperature to come down to 30 degrees and the leave. This temperature was expected to happen around 2000 to 2200 Local. After all the telephone conversations between the Captain with the chief pilots; the decision was made under the Captain's authority to go to the hotel and he informed his decision to Dispatch and the Chief Pilot and we; his crew; supported his decision. The Chief Pilot was pushing the flight crew to continue the flight regardless of the overweight situation and when we followed the Captain to the hotel; later we were replaced by another crew who flew in from a domestic base and as a consequence of this we also had a financial lost. The Captain was bullied and we were all reprimanded for not taking the flight which was not legal to depart under the weight and temperature at the aerodrome.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 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.