board and two people on the ground. An investigation found the plane was improperly loaded and that shifting cargo during takeoff may have caused the crash.

The Federal Aviation Administration of U.S.A fined the Mexican airline TAESA $160,000 for flying a DC-10-30 freighter from Miami in 1997 some 23,564 pounds - or about 4 percent - over its maximum allowed gross weight.

The Commonwealth of Independent States experienced a spate of plane crashes following the break-up of the Soviet Union and its national carrier, Aeroflot. In some cases, according to news reports, organised criminals had sought to avoid both national and physical laws by forcing pilots to fly overloaded aircraft.

Forwarders and carriers can seldom slow down to check shipment weights because of the nature of air shipping. Persons responsible usually do not re-weigh and re-dim shipments.

And because of the added dimension of dimensional weight - a pound of bricks may weigh the same as a pound of feathers, as the old joke goes, but they still would not fit into the same box - checking the weight of each shipment may be more complicated than running it over a scale if a station does not have the latest equipment.

According to allegations, the problem has assumed epidemic proportion in Bangladesh, where employees of different parties involved have established an "understanding" with shippers to earn extra money. There is no doubt that the calculations are deliberately done to earn share of the profit by the shippers at the cost of revenue of the airline concern and safety of the aircraft.

At Zia International Airport (ZIA) the intentional weight cut is rampant, some people involved with the trade said and added that the persons responsible for preparing Trim Sheet are themselves involved in the racket and regularly producing incorrect trim sheet. They are being aided by lack of adequate facilities. The scales available for cargo shipment are not enough and more often remain defective. Due to faulty calibration, scales meant for weighing pallets display different weight of same parcel if measured more than once, a senior officer of a foreign airline said.

The temptation to gain enormous benefit is so high that persons involved in weight cut do not even ready to consider the question accident risk. Some times back, a large cargo agent in Bangladesh chartered an aircraft and provided the cockpit crew with thoroughly incorrect trim sheet. The weight cut was so huge that the pilot realised the problem after taking-off. He had no alternative but to come back after taking-off and made the agent re-load the aircraft.

The wide-spread practice of weight cut at ZIA is posing serious threat to the safety of aircraft. On many occasions persons were caught for weight cut but all of them were set free, even without warning, it is alleged.

However, concerned authority of Biman Bangladesh Airlines strongly refuted the allegations of weight theft of cargo at ZIA. According to him, during the year between July 2002 and June 2003 little over 88,000 tons of air cargo has been shipped through ZIA. Biman carriered about 28,200 tons, 17 foreign carriers about 48,800 tons and freighters about 11,400 tons. Of the total, 23,000 tons were perishable cargos and rest were dry. Almost all the perishable cargo was lifted by Biman.

Biman maintained that possibility of weight theft of dry cargo is nil as these are charged on volumetric basis. For example shippers are to pay for 650 kg for a shipment of 500 kg dry cargo. The perishable cargo goes through different stages and handled by different persons. Re-weighing is also done on more than one occasion.

However, insiders of cargo trade who are for growth of healthy trade do not subscribe to Biman's view. They alleged that corruption in the sector is so widespread and going it for so long that it has become part of the system. It is rather impossible to improve the situation without drastic measure.

The industry executives say, the introduction of strategic and technical advances made in shipping goods by air are likely to bring welcome change and solve the current problems on the ground.

In the near future, the entire system is expected to be electronic and paperless. The shipper, airline, trucker and forwarder are all involved in this process. The sooner it comes, the better for the industry.

Otherwise, if people out there are regular violators, they have to realize that if they want their freight to move, they must give accurate information or it will just sit on the dock.

from this link