Narrative:

I went outside prior to departure to visually inspect a maintenance action required for an aircraft deferral. While I was outside; the ramp crew who loaded the aft cargo compartment (now closed) was at the forward compartment and handed me the load sheet. The load sheet was being revised to show 100 normal sized bags in the rear of the aircraft. I am somewhat familiar with the fact that flights to sju can sometimes have rather large bags and asked them if there were any heavy bags in the aft compartment. The ground crew all agreed that there were a lot of heavy bags and I asked them if they knew how many were heavy. They weren't sure but I told them we needed to indicate the number of heavy bags on the load sheet. They settled on 50 heavy bags and 50 normal bags. I returned to the cockpit to load the data into the FMS. Shortly thereafter; a man presenting himself as the ramp duty manager appeared in the cockpit and advised me that this was an unusual procedure to show heavy bags on the load sheet and that the ramp personnel were uncomfortable with the numbers on the load sheet. He stated that although they confirmed there were many heavy bags; they didn't 'feel comfortable' with the numbers on the sheet. The duty manager said he was unaware of a requirement to keep a tally of heavy bags as well as normal sized bags when agents were loading the aircraft. He asked if I believed this was a requirement for all sju flights. I advised him that I was confident that this was a requirement for all of our air carrier's flights; regardless of destination and that this could pose a safety risk to flights if bags were not adequately accounted for. He left the cockpit with the load sheet to try to verify the load. He returned and stated that the agents were 'comfortable' with the numbers on the load sheet as it was before he left the cockpit with it. The duty manager was unaware of a requirement to tally heavy bags separately from normal sized bags; and the requirement to note the totals of normal and heavy bags on the load sheet given to the cockpit. I would imagine his misunderstanding has been trained to station supervisory personnel and then trained to the agents the same way. I asked them to try to determine the most accurate and conservative count on board the aircraft. Please re-emphasize to station personnel correct documentation of baggage loads; especially as we embark on additional service to cities / destinations commonly known for passenger carriage of heavier than normal baggage.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An air carrier pilot questioned a station personnel procedure that did not document heavy baggage distinguished from normal baggage weight for use in issuing an accurate weight and balance before flight.

Narrative: I went outside prior to departure to visually inspect a maintenance action required for an aircraft deferral. While I was outside; the ramp crew who loaded the aft cargo compartment (now closed) was at the forward compartment and handed me the load sheet. The load sheet was being revised to show 100 normal sized bags in the rear of the aircraft. I am somewhat familiar with the fact that flights to SJU can sometimes have rather large bags and asked them if there were any heavy bags in the aft compartment. The ground crew all agreed that there were a lot of heavy bags and I asked them if they knew how many were heavy. They weren't sure but I told them we needed to indicate the number of heavy bags on the load sheet. They settled on 50 heavy bags and 50 normal bags. I returned to the cockpit to load the data into the FMS. Shortly thereafter; a man presenting himself as the ramp duty manager appeared in the cockpit and advised me that this was an unusual procedure to show heavy bags on the load sheet and that the ramp personnel were uncomfortable with the numbers on the load sheet. He stated that although they confirmed there were many heavy bags; they didn't 'feel comfortable' with the numbers on the sheet. The duty manager said he was unaware of a requirement to keep a tally of heavy bags as well as normal sized bags when agents were loading the aircraft. He asked if I believed this was a requirement for all SJU flights. I advised him that I was confident that this was a requirement for ALL of our air carrier's flights; regardless of destination and that this could pose a safety risk to flights if bags were not adequately accounted for. He left the cockpit with the load sheet to try to verify the load. He returned and stated that the agents were 'comfortable' with the numbers on the load sheet as it was before he left the cockpit with it. The duty manager was unaware of a requirement to tally heavy bags separately from normal sized bags; and the requirement to note the totals of normal AND heavy bags on the load sheet given to the cockpit. I would imagine his misunderstanding has been trained to station supervisory personnel and then trained to the agents the same way. I asked them to try to determine the most accurate and conservative count on board the aircraft. Please re-emphasize to station personnel correct documentation of baggage loads; especially as we embark on additional service to cities / destinations commonly known for passenger carriage of heavier than normal baggage.

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.