Narrative:

After the plane had pushed back from the gate; operations in the departure station called the coordinator and informed him that the load report they had given the captain was incorrect; that the bag count as actually 66 bags and not 64 bags. The captain was immediately notified via ACARS of the miscount and it was believed the issue was resolved. A few minutes later; departure station operations calls the coordinator again; this time saying the cargo load was incorrect; that it was 1;806 lbs. More than reported on the load report. Coordinator asks what the correct load is; and they said it was actually 4;046 lbs. At this time I go to message the captain again to tell him not to take off and realized the plane was already airborne. I inform the captain that the load report is off by at least 1;800 lbs. And tell him to contact me via radio so we can go over his numbers to calculate the actual center of gravity (cg) of the aircraft. While I am verbally discussing with the captain about the initial load report; trying to calculate the new cg and verifying if the aircraft is handling within limits; we both questioned the new reported cargo weight as it exceeds the aft bin limit. The captain informed me that he had tried several times before takeoff to verify the final load report with the rampers and ops in the departure station. Another dispatcher contacts the departure station operations and verifies the amount to be 4;046 lbs. Since this both exceeds the max limit of the cargo hold and therefore prevents an accurate cg of being calculated; and since the cg will move farther aft as the fuel in the wings gets lower; the coordinator and myself felt the flight was no longer safe and I messaged the captain to divert to a nearby airport since it was the nearest suitable airport. The captain asked me to verify I wanted him to divert now and I replied yes; that station ops was already informed and provided him with weather and ops freq. As the flight diverted; I calculated the actual payload on the aircraft and provided it to the captain. Although the cargo been exceeded max weight; the aircraft did not land over max landing weight. The pilot landed without incident. The divert station ops verified the bags to have been 62 bags and 4 heavy bags totaling 70 bags with the cargo being 2;668 lbs.I suggest better communication between operations and flight crew. Operations could have radioed the flight crew immediately as going through dispatch about a significant error caused a delay in relaying the information to the pilots.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An ERJ-175 Captain questioned operations before takeoff about the weight and balance accuracy and was given a revision. Inflight Dispatch advised the crew of an error and later diverted them because the load was off at least 1;800 lbs. The cargo compartment weight limitations were exceeded.

Narrative: After the plane had pushed back from the gate; operations in the departure station called the coordinator and informed him that the load report they had given the captain was incorrect; that the bag count as actually 66 bags and not 64 bags. The captain was immediately notified via ACARS of the miscount and it was believed the issue was resolved. A few minutes later; departure station operations calls the coordinator again; this time saying the cargo load was incorrect; that it was 1;806 lbs. more than reported on the load report. Coordinator asks what the correct load is; and they said it was actually 4;046 lbs. At this time I go to message the Captain again to tell him not to take off and realized the plane was already airborne. I inform the captain that the load report is off by at least 1;800 lbs. and tell him to contact me via Radio so we can go over his numbers to calculate the actual Center of Gravity (CG) of the aircraft. While I am verbally discussing with the Captain about the initial load report; trying to calculate the new CG and verifying if the aircraft is handling within limits; we both questioned the new reported cargo weight as it exceeds the aft bin limit. The Captain informed me that he had tried several times before takeoff to verify the final load report with the rampers and ops in the departure station. Another Dispatcher contacts the departure station operations and verifies the amount to be 4;046 lbs. Since this both exceeds the max limit of the cargo hold and therefore prevents an accurate CG of being calculated; and since the CG will move farther aft as the fuel in the wings gets lower; the coordinator and myself felt the flight was no longer safe and I messaged the Captain to divert to a nearby airport since it was the nearest suitable airport. The Captain asked me to verify I wanted him to divert now and I replied yes; that station ops was already informed and provided him with weather and ops freq. As the flight diverted; I calculated the actual payload on the aircraft and provided it to the Captain. Although the cargo been exceeded max weight; the aircraft did not land over max landing weight. The pilot landed without incident. The divert station ops verified the bags to have been 62 bags and 4 heavy bags totaling 70 bags with the cargo being 2;668 lbs.I suggest better communication between operations and flight crew. Operations could have radioed the flight crew immediately as going through dispatch about a significant error caused a delay in relaying the information to the pilots.

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.