B737-900
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 27; Flight Crew Total 16000; Flight Crew Type 27
Workload; Training / Qualification; Communication Breakdown; Confusion
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Weight And Balance
General None Reported / Taken
Human Factors; Aircraft; Procedure
Upon arrival and parking at gate the jetway driver asked me to open my window because she needed to talk to me. The jetway was not moved toward the plane. I opened the window and she told me ramp had to offload 30 bags out of the aft cargo pit before any passengers could deplane because the plane would hit the tail. I had never heard of anything like this in training or that this was standard operation for the 737-900 ER. They off loaded the bags then the passengers with no incident. I decided to call the dispatcher who was working the flight. Dispatcher said that they had been trained that this was a common procedure. I did not agree since I just finished IOE and in my 2 months of training never heard anything about this. I asked [Dispatcher] to please get the load planner on the phone with us; they did and joined the call. He said that the departure ramp had misloaded the aircraft and that there was a threat of a Tail Tip on the ground. I asked if we were in CG limits for flight and they replied yes. I still cannot wrap my head around how we could have been in the air and not on the ground. The load planner said that they called ahead to our destination to advise them of this threat and that we should have been informed of this situation before arrival. We never received any notification of this situation prior to parking at the gate.
[Report Narrative Contained No Additional Information.]
A B737-900 arrival deplaning was delayed because the departure airport ramp personnel misloaded 30 bags in the aft hold which may have resulted in the aircraft tail tipping had the passengers deplaned before baggage removal.