Jetstar's procedures for calculating the weight of its aircraft are under review by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau after two of its planes took off with more passengers than had been expected by the pilots in October.On October 29, the pilot flying a Jetstar plane from Melbourne to Perth noticed the aircraft was nose-heavy as it was taking off and was forced to pull back on the controls nearly to the limits in order to raise the aircraft's nose.
Once the A321 was airborne, the pilots asked the cabin crew to confirm the passenger numbers and seating locations. The updated information was entered into the computer and the pilots found the aircraft was outside the loading limits for take-off and landing. Passengers were then moved to other seats throughout the cabin to return the aircraft to within the allowable limits for the remainder of the flight and the landing.
Just 10 days earlier, an A320 flight from Brisbane to Melbourne took off with 16 more passengers than had been advised to the pilots, with the aircraft about 1328 kilograms heavier than the take-off weight used to calculate take-off and landing data for the flight. The landing data was recalculated prior to the descent in Melbourne.
The ATSB has deemed the incidents "serious", although there were no injuries in either case. It has begun an investigation that will include interviews with the flight and ground operations crews, a review of Jetstar's internal procedures regarding aircraft loading and a review of preventative and recovery-type risk controls for aircraft loading.