A300
Flight Crew Multiengine; Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Communication Breakdown
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Hazardous Material Violation; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural FAR; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Weight And Balance
Flight Crew Overcame Equipment Problem; General Maintenance Action
Human Factors
We walked out to aircraft to preflight. I remember seeing some animal boxes. Approximately; 1 hour and 10 minutes later we received DG (Dangerous Goods) paperwork with only inaccessible Hazardous Goods onboard (in position 8L we had 1kg of dry ice and 5.66kg of LTH ION 1B). After takeoff we climbed to FL 360. F/O (First Officer) went in back to use lavatory and heard chickens. He discovered they appeared to be in position 1R. We called ZZZ Ramp and let them know the situation. We advised them to call ZZZ1 and advise lives onboard in position 1R. We received an ACARS from Operations that we had lives in position 1R. We advised we knew & had told ZZZ Ramp to advise them. We ensure temperature in the cargo area was appropriate for the animals. A disconnect somewhere with loading and DG Agent. Although I thought I saw live boxes when we went out to the airplane; after 1 hour and 10 minutes on the aircraft completing my pre-flight duties; I totally forgot to ask if lives were onboard. Additionally; the DG agent did not have lives documented on the DG manifest or listed on the DG Position Summary. We were not briefed that lives were onboard when given the DG Manifest & Position Summary. It was early in the morning for all involved. However; we all could've prevented this with a little more attention to detail and folks backing-up their teammates. I feel we all learned a good lesson from this situation.
At cruise altitude we realized that we had a pallet of live chicks and the DG manifest didn't reflect any live animals on board. The Captain called ramp in ZZZ on radio 2. And notified them. We received an ACARS message from Operations that there were lives in 1R. FOM states ' anytime animals are part of the shipment; a statement will appear on the DG Manifest stating that live animals are on board the aircraft and listing the positions in which they are located.' I didn't think to check that the baby chicks were reflected on the DG manifest prior to departure.
A-300 flight crew reported discovering during cruise receiving erroneous Dangerous Goods documents at departure.