Re on board weight and balance
I seem to remember that when Gulf Air first got the Tristar there was an on board weight and balance computer, probably derived from the Lockheed C5. The aircraft were then on the UK register and the CAA (remember them) would not let the crews use the on board system because it seldom agreed with the load sheet, now there's a surprise! It was removed from the aircraft, together with the ground run monitor, which was a wonderful device for proving that you had actually touched down at the correct point on the runway for the scheduled landing distance. Having had a close look at the far end of the runway at Montego Bay from the office window in a 757, because I had made a 10 tonne error in the loadsheet AUW and thus selected a reduced EPR somewhat less than required, I know how the Emirates crew must have felt. They have all my good wishes and congratulations for a nasty situation well recovered whoever caused it. As someone already said,"there but for the grace of God go I" As for manual load sheet calculations are you all still using them or are they computerised, they always used to be computerised at most out stations when I was with Air 2000 and we certainly had a very simple arithmetical (ie accurate) method of producing load sheets and calculating take off data which was far superior to the Airbus and Boeing way with all those funny diagonal lines and odd graphs which I never could understand.