A dispatcher reported that he heard an aircraft declaring an emergency for an elevator trim problem ...

Narrative:

Dispatcher at a nearby desk advised me that one of my flights was calling on her frequency. (I imagine a dialing error was made in the haste of the situation; as my desk was a similar number.) she conferenced the flight with maintenance control. I went over to the desk (on the other side of the room); and overheard they were declaring an emergency and asking dispatch to respond. I answered and asked for details; if they had time. They responded with details; but unfortunately; they were unreadable due to bleed over from another operations frequency. Eventually I was able to confirm landing back at [departure airport]; declaring emergency due main pitch trim inoperative; after frustrating attempts by the crew to inform me of problem and action to be taken. The problem with this bleed over is not a new problem; and makes communication between the flight crew and dispatch difficult at best. In this case; the emergency did not require any action or assistance from the dispatcher; but there have been instances when this was not the case. This is not a new problem; but probably should be re-addressed.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A Dispatcher reported that he heard an aircraft declaring an emergency for an elevator trim problem but the company radio frequency bleed over was so strong that he had difficulty acknowledging the crew's emergency.

Narrative: Dispatcher at a nearby desk advised me that one of my flights was calling on her frequency. (I imagine a dialing error was made in the haste of the situation; as my desk was a similar number.) She conferenced the flight with Maintenance Control. I went over to the desk (on the other side of the room); and overheard they were declaring an emergency and asking Dispatch to respond. I answered and asked for details; if they had time. They responded with details; but unfortunately; they were unreadable due to bleed over from another operations frequency. Eventually I was able to confirm landing back at [departure airport]; declaring emergency due main pitch trim inoperative; after frustrating attempts by the crew to inform me of problem and action to be taken. The problem with this bleed over is not a new problem; and makes communication between the flight crew and Dispatch difficult at best. In this case; the emergency did not require any action or assistance from the Dispatcher; but there have been instances when this was not the case. This is not a new problem; but probably should be re-addressed.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Attributes
ACN	1009229
Time
Date	201205
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Medium Transport Low Wing 2 Turbojet Eng
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Climb
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	Horizontal Stabilizer Trim
Person 1
Function	Dispatcher
Qualification	Dispatch Dispatcher
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical Deviation - Procedural Other / Unknown

A dispatcher reported that he heard an aircraft declaring an emergency for an elevator trim problem but the company radio frequency bleed over was so strong that he had difficulty acknowledging the crew's emergency.