Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 220; Flight Crew Total 19400; Flight Crew Type 9400
Training / Qualification; Communication Breakdown
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Weight And Balance
General None Reported / Taken
Environment - Non Weather Related; Procedure; Company Policy
Shortly after takeoff we got an ACARS message that there were new weights to be used and again Dispatch ACARS'ed us to say that the ramp loaded an extra 1;500 LBS of cargo and did not advise Load Control. Based on the old numbers we took off 1;500 LBS too heavy. The good news is that we elected to use Runway 28L for safety (166K to weight) and it would have flown off on one engine. However; Runway 1 L/R would not have worked and might have put us in the bay (1L/R had us bleeds off max and no extra margin). Our crews trust the Company to give us the most accurate data. I have no idea how I could have been more vigilant other than weigh every bag myself. As an aside; we were to be dispatched ACARS inoperative (cross country; heavy weight and en route weather) and we had to fight to get it fixed. The fix took about ten minutes. If we didn't have the ACARS; we might have used the one's based on the skimpy data; not real time.
An Air Carrier aircraft departed SFO Runway 28R and was notified after takeoff that the weight and balance was 1;500 LBS light which meant a Runway 1 takeoff would have been dangerous at their high gross weight.