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Old 15th Mar 2014, 20:15
  #4095 (permalink)  
jugofpropwash
 
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What would be the chances of the flight crew knowing what cargo was going to be on their flight, far enough ahead of schedule to plan something like that?

In my days in Ops, I would get the cargo manifest a few hours before departure to do the planning. Often it would get bumped to another flight if we had weight and balance (and space) issues. The cargo manifest went to the Cabin Crew. I would only notify the Flight Crew of what cargo was on board if there was a NOTOC involved. Even if we had something unusual, i.e. a car, that we knew about in advance, the crew wouldn't know until they saw it on the ramp.
I've given this some thought, and there are some possibilities.

First - one thing we know. There were approximately 50 less seats sold for the flight than max capacity. That might signify a heavy cargo. I would think that someone would have to plan that out ahead of time, otherwise the seats would be sold. If someone knew that regular shipments of something heavy (gold?) were being made, tracking available seats would point to which flight.

Also - this was a high-hour pilot with seniority. Presumably the red eye would not be a particularly desirable flight. It could be that if there was an important cargo or person on board, the airline assigned a senior pilot. If that was SOP, it could have been another indication of cargo.
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