Narrative:

We departed on flight with the paper work for the return flight in hand because of numerous reports of their failure to print the dispatch in a timely manner which has caused delays. When we arrived at the outstation and started boarding the passengers I noticed that the takeoff weight seemed pretty low but didn't notice that the payload was shown as zero on the flight planning page until we sent our ACARS message and awaited the numbers to return for our passenger loading configuration. Upon receipt of this information we both realized that there was a greater than 10% difference being shown on the display screen and that alerted me to check the payload. It read zero. This was around xa:00 as we prepared to depart and return. I emailed the chief pilot and the first officer was finally able to contact operations via ACARS and get new numbers with the payload we had. Originally the computer flight plan read zero but we ended up with 126 passengers! The planned takeoff weight was 96;700 but we ended up with an actual weight of 123;500! Both the first officer and I checked that the numbers we had were correct and then ensured that our operations were notified and credible and reliable information was transferred before operating the flight. We do not know why the zero payload occurred. We can only guess that this happened as a result of an oversight by a dispatcher. However we have heard numerous reports of cost cutting by dispatchers by failing to delineate a payload in order to cut the overall fuel required for a flight. We can only suggest an inquiry as to the reason for such an event to occur. Especially on an international flight with a greatly increased workload we as a crew would only hope to have the best dispatchers working on such a flight as to minimize any and all errors. The short flight and additional duties beyond the normal domestic flight routine can lead to oversight when trying to accomplish the schedule in a timely fashion. We would like to suggest that whatever punishment or action that would have been given towards the flight crew for failing to adhere to safety issues like this be administered equally to the dispatchers who fail to abide by standard practices if in fact this event turns out to be something other than an honest mistake.

Related reports:

Google
 

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A B737-700 crew was issued preflight release paperwork; which had no payload as part of the weight and balance. The error was caught and corrected before takeoff.

Narrative: We departed on flight with the paper work for the return flight in hand because of numerous reports of their failure to print the dispatch in a timely manner which has caused delays. When we arrived at the outstation and started boarding the passengers I noticed that the takeoff weight seemed pretty low but didn't notice that the payload was shown as zero on the flight planning page until we sent our ACARS message and awaited the numbers to return for our passenger loading configuration. Upon receipt of this information we both realized that there was a greater than 10% difference being shown on the display screen and that alerted me to check the payload. It read zero. This was around XA:00 as we prepared to depart and return. I emailed the chief pilot and the First Officer was finally able to contact operations via ACARS and get new numbers with the payload we had. Originally the computer flight plan read zero but we ended up with 126 passengers! The planned takeoff weight was 96;700 but we ended up with an actual weight of 123;500! Both the First Officer and I checked that the numbers we had were correct and then ensured that our operations were notified and credible and reliable information was transferred before operating the flight. We do not know why the zero payload occurred. We can only guess that this happened as a result of an oversight by a Dispatcher. However we have heard numerous reports of cost cutting by Dispatchers by failing to delineate a payload in order to cut the overall fuel required for a flight. We can only suggest an inquiry as to the reason for such an event to occur. Especially on an international flight with a greatly increased workload we as a crew would only hope to have the best Dispatchers working on such a flight as to minimize any and all errors. The short flight and additional duties beyond the normal domestic flight routine can lead to oversight when trying to accomplish the schedule in a timely fashion. We would like to suggest that whatever punishment or action that would have been given towards the flight crew for failing to adhere to safety issues like this be administered equally to the Dispatchers who fail to abide by standard practices if in fact this event turns out to be something other than an honest mistake.

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.