Narrative:

At the captain's request I initiated a three way phone patch with maintenance control. My initial radio contact with the flight was very weak but readable so I completed the patch with maintenance. After maintenance control came on line; however; the whole patch failed. I contacted the flight again with the same very weak but readable radio contact; brought maintenance control on the line but then couldn't re-raise the flight. The captain then contacted me via our commercial radio link system and that connection was loud and clear. I requested that they make the patch to maintenance control as my phone system appeared not to be working well. They completed the initial patch successfully. However; when engine maintenance control said the flight needed more input from airframe maintenance control and tried to transfer the patch; there was a long silence. I finally asked the captain if he was still there and he was. However maintenance control appeared to have dropped off the patch.at this point the captain decided he would continue to destination and the patch was terminated. Airframe maintenance control then advised he could hear me and the flight on the line but could not join in. While this was all going on I had to ask two other dispatchers to assist me with my workload. The airport weather forecast had changed to require an alternate so that flights en route had to be advised and I had to add an alternate to flights not yet departed.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An air carrier Dispatcher was unable to establish a flight crew/Dispatch/Maintenance Control communication link request from a domestic flight. Ultimately; the Captain gave up the attempt due to the distraction being more of a problem than was the reason for which the patch was requested.

Narrative: At the Captain's request I initiated a three way phone patch with Maintenance Control. My initial radio contact with the flight was very weak but readable so I completed the patch with Maintenance. After Maintenance Control came on line; however; the whole patch failed. I contacted the flight again with the same very weak but readable radio contact; brought Maintenance Control on the line but then couldn't re-raise the flight. The Captain then contacted me via our commercial radio link system and that connection was loud and clear. I requested that they make the patch to Maintenance Control as my phone system appeared not to be working well. They completed the initial patch successfully. However; when Engine Maintenance Control said the flight needed more input from Airframe Maintenance Control and tried to transfer the patch; there was a long silence. I finally asked the Captain if he was still there and he was. However Maintenance Control appeared to have dropped off the patch.At this point the Captain decided he would continue to destination and the patch was terminated. Airframe Maintenance Control then advised he could hear me and the flight on the line but could not join in. While this was all going on I had to ask two other Dispatchers to assist me with my workload. The airport weather forecast had changed to require an alternate so that flights en route had to be advised and I had to add an alternate to flights not yet departed.

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.