B737-800
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Workload; Communication Breakdown; Training / Qualification
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Weight And Balance; Ground Event / Encounter Other / Unknown
General None Reported / Taken
Company Policy; Environment - Non Weather Related; Staffing
During my pre-flight at the gate; I noticed that the cargo loading and ground crew was wearing 'Worldwide' safety vests instead of our Company. I observed no Company supervisors on the ramp. The ground crew was not ready for departure at departure time. They used non-standard phraseology during the pre-departure; push back; engine start and disconnect process. The ground crew opened the forward cargo door twice after the parking brake was released for push back without first notifying the Captain. The Captain flew to our destination and other than noting that the aircraft was nose heavy on takeoff; the flight was uneventful. After we parked at gate the Crew Chief entered the cockpit as the passengers were deplaning. He explained that the cargo had been incorrectly loaded and pointed to his 'Offload Report.' The report clearly showed that only ONE bag should have been placed in the forward cargo and the rest should have been in the aft cargo. The Crew Chief reported that the aft cargo was empty and ALL the bags were in the forward cargo. Obviously this is a very serious issue - one which could have caused aircraft controllability issues; or worse; a hull loss. The ground crew for our flight was one of the Company's recently outsourced crews. They used non-standard phraseology; indicating a lack of proper training. They were unable to prepare the aircraft for departure in a timely manner in spite of the fact that the cargo was relatively light; needing only one cargo bay. In my opinion; this lack of training; experience and supervision resulted in a very dangerous cargo loading error.Better training and supervision of new; improved outsourced contractors. Provide pilots with the same paperwork used to load the aircraft so we can double check with the load closeout/takeoff performance data and verify proper loading.
This report adds no new information.
A B737-800 crew reported that an outsourced ground crew loaded all freight forward when it should have been aft causing a nose heavy aircraft and also used non-standard phraseology during pushback.