B747 Undifferentiated or Other Model
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 191; Flight Crew Total 16324; Flight Crew Type 12694
Confusion; Communication Breakdown
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural FAR; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Weight And Balance
Flight Crew FLC complied w / Automation / Advisory; Flight Crew Became Reoriented
Company Policy; Equipment / Tooling; Procedure
Flight was a charter flight. The flight taxied and took off twenty minutes later. Final weights were sent nearly an hour before taxi with a Zero Fuel Weight (ZFW) of 525;586 LBS. One hour 17 minutes after takeoff; our Dispatcher sent us an ACARS message informing us 'YOUR FINAL WEIGHTS WERE WRONG. ACTUAL ZFW IS 534;726. I SENT A NEW REVAL DOC TO THE PRINTER. SABRE CRASHED WHEN I SENT IT. DID IT ARRIVE? I PLAN ON FILING A REPORT OVER THIS. THANKS.' We the crew started doing our calculations with the new ZFW (that was 9140 LBS over the final ZFW message of 526586) and added it to our boarded fuel 344;100 LBS and concluded that we taxied out at 878;826 LBS (max weight is 878;000 LBS) without knowing it. The liftoff fuel from the ACARS HOWGOESIT message was 342;100 LBS and we concluded (after we were notified of the error) that we lifted off at 876;686 LBS (max takeoff is 875;000 LBS) without our knowledge. We assumed we weighted 867;686 LBS using the original final weight. Our V-speeds were calculated based on that weight. The aircraft takeoff roll and rotation was uneventful but felt heavy. From push back; during taxi and until takeoff our cockpit was not contacted thru ACARS; SATCOM; or TOWER or any other means to inform us of the error. Inflight we called the duty manager thru SATCOM to inform him of our findings.
We took off at XA:54z. Our lifted fuel was 344100 lbs. Our reported final weights were: ZFW 525.586; TOW 866.986. We received an ACARS message at XC:05Z from Dispatch that our final weights were wrong. The actual ZFW was 534.726 vs 525.586 a difference of 9140 lbs. Without our knowledge; we were over weight for taxi at 878.826 LBS and our takeoff weight was 876.900. The Dispatcher comments were that at the time of the error discovery way before our take off time; SABRE had to fix something in the background.
B747 flight crew and Load Planner reported the Dispatch software system crashed which prevented the final weight and balance numbers to be delivered prior to takeoff. During cruise; the flight crew was notified their max taxi weight was exceeded and max takeoff weight of 875;000 LBS was exceeded at 876;686 LBS.