Narrative:

During the cargo pre-flight I walked the main deck and arrived in the aft of the aircraft as the ground crew was closing the cargo door and flipping up pallet locks in the empty positions. I began to study one pallet a few positions forward from the tail on the right side. There was an empty position immediately aft of this pallet. Some cargo on this pallet had collapsed and was retained by the cargo net on the left side of the pallet. I inquired about the cargo and the ground crew assured me it was ok and they would add additional straps just to be safe. I then asked about the hazmat I had seen during my walk through and followed some ground crew members forward. After the flight I was informed by the captain that this same pallet had shifted during flight and possibly damaged some cargo. Thinking back on my pre-flight I cannot recall looking at the aft locks of this pallet. I believe I allowed the condition of the pallet and subsequent conversation with ground crew to distract me from my normal duties. This was a reminder of how important attention to detail can be and how it takes extra diligence when confronted with non-normal conditions.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A pallet shifted during takeoff and landing on a B747; causing cargo damage. It was found that aft pallet locks were not properly set.

Narrative: During the cargo pre-flight I walked the main deck and arrived in the aft of the aircraft as the ground crew was closing the cargo door and flipping up pallet locks in the empty positions. I began to study one pallet a few positions forward from the tail on the right side. There was an empty position immediately aft of this pallet. Some cargo on this pallet had collapsed and was retained by the cargo net on the left side of the pallet. I inquired about the cargo and the ground crew assured me it was ok and they would add additional straps just to be safe. I then asked about the hazmat I had seen during my walk through and followed some ground crew members forward. After the flight I was informed by the Captain that this same pallet had shifted during flight and possibly damaged some cargo. Thinking back on my pre-flight I cannot recall looking at the aft locks of this pallet. I believe I allowed the condition of the pallet and subsequent conversation with ground crew to distract me from my normal duties. This was a reminder of how important attention to detail can be and how it takes extra diligence when confronted with non-normal conditions.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 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.