A319
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP); Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Multiengine
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 166
Communication Breakdown
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Hazardous Material Violation; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Weight And Balance; Ground Event / Encounter Other / Unknown
Air Traffic Control Provided Assistance; Flight Crew Requested ATC Assistance / Clarification; Flight Crew Returned To Gate; General Flight Cancelled / Delayed; General Maintenance Action
Human Factors
During taxi in ZZZ for departure; while trying to determine the cause of late Weight [and Balance documentation]; operations requested us to return to gate in order to resolve a loading issue with dangerous goods loaded in the aft hold. First issue was the lack of documentation regarding the dangerous goods. We had not received any notification about dangerous goods prior to communicating with operations during taxi out. Second issue was the incorrect loading of the dangerous goods. This was obviously detected by ramp; and was the reason we were unable to get final weights during taxi out. Issue three; If ramp had not discovered; or trapped the loading error; we would have departed with an improperly secured load of unknown dangerous goods. After return to stand; the load was determined to be dry ice of a quantity not requiring prior notification to the flight deck. The ramp supervisor explained that only two bags had been used to surround the cargo; when four bags should have used. He described it as a calculation error.
A319 First Officer reported Dispatch notification of Hazmat cargo documentation errors and incorrect DG cargo loading configuration during taxi. Aircraft returned to gate to correct the errors prior to departure.