Date: 201306
Local time of day: 0601-1200
Location: EGLL.Airport, FO
Flight conditions: VMC
Aircraft: B767 Undifferentiated or Other Model
Operator: Air Carrier
Operating under: Part 121
Mission: Passenger
Flight phase: Parked
Reporter organization: Air Carrier
Reporter function: Pilot Not Flying; Captain
Second reporter function: First Officer; Pilot Flying
Anomaly: Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Hazardous Material Violation; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Detector: Person Ground Personnel
When detected: In-flight
Result: General None Reported / Taken
Contributing factors: Human Factors
Primary problem: Human Factors

Narrative: There was one hazmat item which was supposed to be placed on our aircraft. We had asked that the item be removed shortly before departure time. It took the station several minutes to locate the item and remove it. The cargo door was closed a few minutes after our scheduled push time. Though it would be easy to assume that the delay for the cargo door was related to the hazmat removal; we left nothing to chance and contacted Operations by voice at this time to double check and make sure the item had been removed. They said it was removed. With this complete we were now ready for push. All checklists and normal operational procedures; (and required paperwork) were complete for our known configuration. Then; during taxi; we received an 'auto generated' computer message which was sent to the aircraft. It briefly describes what hazmat items are planned to be on board. Not too surprisingly; it still showed the hazmat we had been told was removed. Being diligent however; we took the time to call the station one more time before we took off to confirm that they had indeed removed the item; that there was NO hazmat of any kind on the aircraft; and that the message had been generated in error. They were emphatic that 'yes'; the hazmat item had been removed; the auto generated message was not correct. About 2 hours later over the North Atlantic we were informed by Dispatch that the station had made a mistake and removed the wrong pallet. The hazmat was still on board. We then had Dispatch send the dangerous good summary over ACARS to complete the required paperwork for our updated configuration. We looked up the details for the drill code actions just in case there was an issue with the item and proceeded on with the flight without further incident.


Second narrative: We received a written notification of Dangerous Goods (DG) that the Captain did not want on board. Ramp was advised to remove the goods and they took the written notification with them. On taxi out we received our final DG print out on the ACARS. We called Operations to confirm that the DG had been removed and they said yes. Well after coast out we received notification from Dispatch that the DG had not been removed. We then requested and received; via ACARS; a pilot DG notification from load planning. We continued the flight without incident.


Synopsis: B767 flight crew reports requesting that lithium metal battery dangerous goods be removed from the aircraft prior to departure. After a short delay the station reports that the dangerous goods have been remove. Over the North Atlantic the crew is informed that the wrong pallet was removed and the batteries are still on board. Flight continues to destination uneventfully.