Narrative:

My crew and I had just finished unloading flight abc from ZZZ at gate xx as well as running the city bags to the claim area. Upon returning to the ready room we found that we were assigned another outbound. As I logged in to print out the paperwork for this next flight; flight dade to ZZZ1 departure at gate xy. Scheduled departure in 34 minutes while no one says the word hurry or rush moving crews around like this and then having the clock countdown; as well as metrics set up to always try to beat the competition in on time performance hurry and rush are often implied. I thought to myself how ironic that my crew had just said surely they will not give us a 9th assignment tonight; and yet here it was and even a trip that had little time to load.I took my printout to the gate and began to assess what I actually had on hand. I noticed right away that of the two carts of freight/mail only one of the carts was on my paperwork. This was cart X; it showed 1369 lbs of freight along with the notation 15 lbs lithium metal allowed. This 'allowed' notation would later prove to be misleading. The other cart Y was not on my paperwork and looked like someone had taken all the rest of the other freight; mail; stores items; etc.; that were supposed to be on the flight and threw it all into one cart. My initial thought was that as far as the mail goes I can't load it anymore because I couldn't be certain the weight was still going to be correct. My next thought was that everything in this cart probably has to be held off anyway as I'm not sure about it. So; I told my crew take the cart I'm sure of cart X and load it aft; while I load the bags forward. (As the note on my paperwork said allowed and not hazmat; I decided no additional bags were needed aft. I was working to follow SOP this confusion was a mistake and not an intentional act.)my crew took the cart and started their task. As I started loading the bags forward; I kept looking at my paperwork and realized there was supposed to be a cap (critical aircraft part). As the zone supervisor and another lead walked up; I had the other lead help me do the bags in front while I went back to the cart Y to see if the cap was on it. While looking through it; I did not find the cap. I did; however; see several boxes of clearly marked hazmat deciding not to load that due to our now short time and the potential for difficulty. Behind this clearly marked hazmat; I saw another box with the paperwork for this flight taped to the top. (The back side hidden from my view would lead to later trouble.) I looked at the printout it was on my paperwork and decided I could at least get one more item on. Not seeing the sticker on the buried side; and not realizing this was also a hazmat was where I made a mistake; but I at no time intentionally disregarded any standard operating procedure. Everything was on now the doors were closed and we pushed the aircraft out. As I was locking the trip out I realized that the 13 lbs item was hazmat after all and needed to be removed or have 15 bags put around it. Having made this mistake; I tried mitigate the delay and simply removed it when the plane returned; and got the aircraft right back out. Trying to lock it out again and talking to the load planner; the 1369 lbs item was also hazmat even though the paperwork said allowed and not hazmat. We brought back the aircraft a second time put 15 bags along with the initial 13 lbs hazmat on; and sent it out again this time successfully. At no time was I trying to circumvent or bypass SOP. The situation I was in. I simply made a mistake; in recognizing the amount and varied labeling of the hazmat in the time I had.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Ramp Lead reported incorrect and misleading loading documents resulted in load configuration errors. Aircraft was called back to gate to correctly configure hazmat cargo.

Narrative: My crew and I had just finished unloading Flight ABC from ZZZ at Gate XX as well as running the city bags to the claim area. Upon returning to the ready room we found that we were assigned another outbound. As I logged in to print out the paperwork for this next flight; Flight DADE to ZZZ1 departure at Gate XY. Scheduled departure in 34 minutes while no one says the word hurry or rush moving crews around like this and then having the clock countdown; as well as metrics set up to always try to beat the competition in on time performance hurry and rush are often implied. I thought to myself how ironic that my crew had just said surely they will not give us a 9th assignment tonight; and yet here it was and even a trip that had little time to load.I took my printout to the gate and began to assess what I actually had on hand. I noticed right away that of the two carts of freight/mail only one of the carts was on my paperwork. This was Cart X; it showed 1369 lbs of freight along with the notation 15 lbs Lithium Metal Allowed. This 'Allowed' notation would later prove to be misleading. The other Cart Y was not on my paperwork and looked like someone had taken all the rest of the other freight; mail; stores items; etc.; that were supposed to be on the flight and threw it all into one cart. My initial thought was that as far as the mail goes I can't load it anymore because I couldn't be certain the weight was still going to be correct. My next thought was that everything in this cart probably has to be held off anyway as I'm not sure about it. So; I told my crew take the cart I'm sure of Cart X and load it aft; while I load the bags forward. (As the note on my paperwork said Allowed and not Hazmat; I decided no additional bags were needed aft. I was working to follow SOP this confusion was a mistake and not an intentional act.)My crew took the cart and started their task. As I started loading the bags forward; I kept looking at my paperwork and realized there was supposed to be a CAP (Critical Aircraft Part). As the Zone Supervisor and another lead walked up; I had the other lead help me do the bags in front while I went back to the Cart Y to see if the CAP was on it. While looking through it; I did not find the CAP. I did; however; see several boxes of clearly marked HAZMAT deciding not to load that due to our now short time and the potential for difficulty. Behind this clearly marked HAZMAT; I saw another box with the paperwork for this flight taped to the top. (The back side hidden from my view would lead to later trouble.) I looked at the printout it was on my paperwork and decided I could at least get one more item on. Not seeing the sticker on the buried side; and not realizing this was also a HAZMAT was where I made a Mistake; but I at no time intentionally disregarded any standard operating procedure. Everything was on now the doors were closed and we pushed the aircraft out. As I was locking the trip out I realized that the 13 lbs item was HAZMAT after all and needed to be removed or have 15 bags put around it. Having made this mistake; I tried mitigate the delay and simply removed it when the plane returned; and got the aircraft right back out. Trying to lock it out again and talking to the Load Planner; the 1369 lbs item was also HAZMAT even though the paperwork said allowed and not HAZMAT. We brought back the aircraft a second time put 15 bags along with the initial 13 lbs HAZMAT on; and sent it out again this time successfully. At no time was I trying to circumvent or bypass SOP. The situation I was in. I simply made a mistake; in recognizing the amount and varied labeling of the HAZMAT in the time I had.

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.