A fatigued B727 first officer reported that a second officer; with the captain's concurrence; accept...

Narrative:

Illegal weight & balance. Illegal flight plan release (during preflight to T/O).captain unwillingness to listen and fatigue (second leg of an early am flight).we were flight planned to carry ballast fuel. The airplane was fueled to have 7000LBS of ballast fuel instead of the 10000LBS that we were supposed to have per the flight release. The duties of the captain and the second officer include verifying the weight and balance. As the first officer; I am not included in this process per our company procedures; however; during pushback and engine starting the second officer mentioned that the fuel could have been distributed more accurately. That is when I found out that our fuel was not distributed as planned. I told the captain that this was illegal of which he adamantly disagreed. He was in a hurry and he commanded me to get a taxi clearance. During taxi I told him in a very assertive fashion that we were illegal to fly. He then told the second officer to show me the weight and balance center of gravity limits and then he with concurrence of the second officer; stated that the weight and balance was based on our actual fuel load. It did not look right and I told the captain that it did not seem right. I was starting to feel tired therefore I needed to look at the weight and balance in detail to find the problem. He told me to get a takeoff clearance. I knew we were safe and decided that I tried and did my part and then we took off. I should have been more assertive and said that we needed to stop and solve the problem even if I needed to say that I would refuse to fly. A few contributing factors are: 1. Captain overconfidence. 2. First officer trying to follow company procedures of respectful assertion and to respect the company operation specs that the captain has full authority without limitations over all crew members and their duties. 3. Fatigue of all crewmembers. Anytime there is a legal issue the other crewmembers must be adamant about resolving the issue before continuing.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A fatigued B727 First Officer reported that a Second Officer; with the Captain's concurrence; accepted a fuel load not distributed in accordance with the flight release weight and balance.

Narrative: Illegal weight & balance. Illegal flight plan release (during preflight to T/O).Captain unwillingness to listen and fatigue (Second leg of an early AM flight).We were flight planned to carry ballast fuel. The airplane was fueled to have 7000LBS of ballast fuel instead of the 10000LBS that we were supposed to have per the flight release. The duties of the Captain and the Second Officer include verifying the weight and balance. As the First Officer; I am not included in this process per our company procedures; however; during pushback and engine starting the Second Officer mentioned that the fuel could have been distributed more accurately. That is when I found out that our fuel was not distributed as planned. I told the Captain that this was illegal of which he adamantly disagreed. He was in a hurry and he commanded me to get a taxi clearance. During taxi I told him in a very assertive fashion that we were illegal to fly. He then told the Second Officer to show me the weight and balance center of gravity limits and then he with concurrence of the Second Officer; stated that the weight and balance was based on our actual fuel load. It did not look right and I told the Captain that it did not seem right. I was starting to feel tired therefore I needed to look at the weight and balance in detail to find the problem. He told me to get a takeoff clearance. I knew we were safe and decided that I tried and did my part and then we took off. I should have been more assertive and said that we needed to stop and solve the problem even if I needed to say that I would refuse to fly. A few contributing factors are: 1. Captain overconfidence. 2. First Officer trying to follow company procedures of respectful assertion and to respect the company Operation Specs that the Captain has full authority without limitations over all crew members and their duties. 3. Fatigue of all crewmembers. Anytime there is a legal issue the other crewmembers must be adamant about resolving the issue before continuing.

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.

Attributes
ACN	834460
Time
Date	200904
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	B727 Undifferentiated or Other Model
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Taxi
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	First Officer
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP) Flight Crew Flight Engineer Flight Crew Flight Instructor
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 60 Flight Crew Total 7000 Flight Crew Type 3200
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Procedural FAR Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Deviation - Procedural Weight And Balance

A fatigued B727 first officer reported that a second officer; with the captain's concurrence; accepted a fuel load not distributed in accordance with the flight release weight and balance.