Accept or refuse dangerous goods for a charter flight

What is going on

Northern Basin Resources has lodged two consignments for Tuesday's SB450 fly-in fly-out rotation to their mine strip: a carton of lithium batteries for survey equipment with a shipper's declaration, and a 20 litre drum of a class 3 flammable liquid that the site describes as urgent. The Ground Operations Manager wants each consignment accepted or refused strictly against the Dangerous Goods Acceptance Procedure, the checklist and the limits of the SkyBridge dangerous goods approval for a passenger flight. Accepted consignments must be weighed, documented in the dispatch record and covered by a notification to the pilot in command, and the ramp team leader needs to know the loading position. A refusal must be explained to the shipper in writing.

Your brief

Check both declarations and packages, decide whether each consignment can be accepted for a passenger flight within the approval, complete the checklist for each, weigh and document the accepted goods, prepare the notification to the pilot in command and advise loading, and write to the shipper about any refusal.

Work through it

You do not need to do it all. Doing a few of these will show you what the work is like. Your ticks and notes stay on this device.

• Read the Dangerous Goods Acceptance Procedure and confirm in the Crew Training and Qualification Records that your dangerous goods acceptance qualification is current.
• Check the lithium battery declaration line by line: proper shipping name, UN number, class, packing instruction, quantity and the passenger aircraft limits, and inspect the package marking and labelling.
• Check the class 3 liquid declaration and package in the same way and compare the quantity and packing group against the passenger aircraft limits and the SkyBridge approval.
• Complete a Dangerous Goods Acceptance Checklist for each consignment with the decision and the reasons.
• Weigh the accepted consignment, enter it in the SB450 record in the Flight Movements and Dispatch system and prepare the notification to the pilot in command.
• Advise the ramp team leader of the loading compartment, position and segregation required for the accepted consignment.
• Write a short letter to the shipper explaining any refusal, what would make the consignment acceptable and the alternative of surface transport.
• If any package is damaged or undeclared goods are found, isolate it and lodge a report in the Safety Reporting System.

What someone in this role would produce

• Two completed Dangerous Goods Acceptance Checklists
• Notification to the pilot in command for accepted goods
• Updated SB450 dispatch record
• Shipper letter for any refusal