For all the Arm Chair Professionals,
It takes A LOT to put an A320 aircraft out of the envelope. You can put the THS in an A320 at the opposite end of the scale and its still flyable. 16 pax spread out (most likely) evenly isn't going to cause any drama and lets face it, its very unlikely they were all in the back rows. Just FYI.
Also, these loading issues are common occurrences. Virgin had an incident a few years ago where a 737 departed Bali with 1600kg of weight (bags) unaccounted for. A similar time to one of their A330 departing Perth with 1300kg of cargo not even manifested (which in my opinion is more dangerous and I'm not referring to weight issues). The ATSB website has many similar events with all airlines, not just Jetstar.
I do agree with the guys point of view in regards to cheap systems but what are other carriers using that Jetstar aren't? Or is it that these occurrences just go unnoticed?
Jetstar pilots do their own weight and balance calculations on an iPad program but they only feed in the data that is handed to them by the ground crews.
I have heard that Qantas and Virgin pilots have this done for them but I'm not sure if this is the case, just what I heard. Maybe an insider can confirm this (and a REAL insider, not an arm chair troller). But if it is true, maybe this may be where a problem could lie. Just a thought.
https://www.atsb.gov.au/publications...-2014-110.aspx