Description

On 3 January 2020, the crew of an Airbus A321neo (G-UZMI) being operated by EasyJet on a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Bristol to Edinburgh found that the passengers boarded had been given seats such that their distribution in the cabin was considered unusual but the load and trim sheet indicated that it was allowable. The same unusual seating then happened on the next sector but this time the allocated seating was incompatible with the safe operation of the flight and passengers were reseated accordingly on the Captains instructions. An internal investigation prompted by the Captain’s safety report discovered a systemic flaw in the operator’s load control system was to blame and the first flight was found to have been inadvertently operated outside permitted limits.

Investigation

An internal investigation was initiated by the aircraft operator on receipt of a safety report raised by the aircraft Captain when it became apparent that a systemic issue with the company load control system was the cause, the UK AAIB were informed and opened a Serious Incident Investigation.

It was noted that the 40 year-old Captain involved had a total of 9,271 flying hours experience of which all except 189 hours were on A320 family aircraft. Relevant recorded flight data was available.

What Happened

It was established that the Bristol to Edinburgh return flight under investigation had been originally planned to be operated by a different A320 family variant and when the A321neo was substituted, an alternative flight crew had to be called from standby because the rostered flight crew were not qualified for the substituted variant.