Two ZSU controllers report of on going problem where they could not reach another facility via land ...

Attributes
ACN	1170002
Time
Date	201405
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	ZSU.ARTCC
State Reference	PR
Environment
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Widebody Low Wing 2 Turbojet Eng
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Descent
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Enroute
Qualification	Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Experience	Air Traffic Control Time Certified In Pos 1 (yrs) 13
Person 2
Function	Enroute
Qualification	Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Experience	Air Traffic Control Time Certified In Pos 1 (yrs) 17
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Illness

Narrative:

The landlines in san juan cerap have been OTS for way too long. I can't even remember how long. Every time we get in contact with msds; svmi or tncc it is actually a success. Aircraft X declared a medical emergency as it was approaching santo domingo airspace (mdsd). A patient with a heart attack. Luckily we got the coordination done in time. However; later on the pilot advised that the patient had died and the pilot needed to deviate for weather. This was the time when we could not communicate with mdsd to forward this information. Consider the situation. I needed to expedite the flight; but I could not accomplish the coordination. Usually you would hold this aircraft in your airspace until coordination is done; but I will not hold the aircraft. This almost gave me a deviation; but after many attempts; we got msds on the line when the aircraft was about 10 mile from their airspace.FAA needs to seriously work on these landlines.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Two ZSU controllers report of on going problem where they could not reach another facility via land line to advise the Controller of a medical emergency.

Narrative: The landlines in San Juan CERAP have been OTS for way too long. I can't even remember how long. Every time we get in contact with MSDS; SVMI or TNCC it is actually a success. Aircraft X declared a medical emergency as it was approaching Santo Domingo airspace (MDSD). A patient with a heart attack. Luckily we got the coordination done in time. However; later on the pilot advised that the patient had died and the pilot needed to deviate for weather. This was the time when we could not communicate with MDSD to forward this information. Consider the situation. I needed to expedite the flight; but I could not accomplish the coordination. Usually you would hold this aircraft in your airspace until coordination is done; but I will not hold the aircraft. This almost gave me a deviation; but after many attempts; we got MSDS on the line when the aircraft was about 10 mile from their airspace.FAA needs to seriously work on these landlines.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site 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.

Two ZSU controllers report of on going problem where they could not reach another facility via land line to advise the controller of a medical emergency.