EMB ERJ 170/175 ER/LR
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Communication Breakdown; Confusion; Training / Qualification
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural FAR; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Weight And Balance
General None Reported / Taken
Procedure
When the ground crew brought the load sheet for our outbound flight back; I looked at it and handed it to the first officer. When I did; the FO said; (paraphrasing) 'Oh; I forgot to tell you... When I did the walk around the ground crew had just opened the forward cargo door and I noticed that it looked like the baggage was stacked all the way to the top of the bin; above the fire line.' Since the bin was loaded with 55 total bags; I made sure when I received the load sheet to confirm with the ramp agent in the previous station that nothing was loaded above the fire suppression line. I suggested to the FO that perhaps it had shifted in flight or during landing; but he was adamant that the forward bin was overloaded. Having been advised after the fact; I cannot confirm this visually; only report what was reported to me.I know this is a serious hazard and a hot topic for us. I am hyper-vigilant about confirming with the ramp crew that the bins are loaded safely and the load sheet is accurately completed. In this case; 53 standard and 2 heavy bags in the bin caught my attention and I asked the ramp agent for confirmation that the fire suppression line was not breached. Had the number been 60+ I would have had the FO go check the bin visually anyway. Since they also loaded several bags in the aft bin; I determined that they hadn't just stuffed everything into the forward bin out of laziness or due to time constraints; and that they had stopped at the appropriate loading volume and placed all additional bags in the aft bin. There were eight standard and one heavy bags loaded in the aft bin; and then just prior to pushback the ground crew received four additional standard bags and loaded them in the aft bin as well; causing us to be a minute late departing. Short of instituting a policy of mandatory loading checks by the flight crew triggered at some specific bag count; I'm not sure how we can prevent recurrence of this type of issue. We operate as a team; and rely on the team members to each do their jobs properly. In this case; my error detection mechanism was employed by asking the ramp agent for confirmation that the bin was loaded properly but he provided false information to me and the error was not trapped.
An ERJ-170 Captain reported that the First Officer noticed that the ground crew had loaded baggage over the forward baggage bin fire line on the previous flight.