Superspotter,
Independent? How would you suggest this be done? That each pallet be weighed by an "independent" party after weighing by the carrier itself or its agents? SGS would love that but get real, please; any airline, cargo or passenger, starts from a premise of trust tempered by procedural cross-checks. And crews flying cargo, with their own lives on the line are, if anything, genetically interested in the particulars of what's likely to crowd them should there be a sudden stop.
And, since w+b doesn't seem to have been a factor here, why bring it up?