Narrative:

The flight was a reposition flight. Estimated time of departure out of was at several hours before midnight which was entered into computer. Flight departed with no problems. Twenty minutes after the planned departure; systems controller advised that another flight going was having maintenance issues enroute to ZZZ and I was advised to divert the repositioning flight to [that airport]. At this point the repositioning flight was approximately 100nm north of [the intended destination airport]. There was also a strong line of weather stretching from [arkansas] south. Since I had a good amount of tanker gas onboard; it was no problem routing him south of ZZZ1 and then around to the north to ZZZ. New routing; fuel numbers; all weather and NOTAMS were sent to crew and flight started making the turn to get around the weather. 10 minutes after diversion was made; the systems controller advised that maintenance has called in ZZZ up from maintenance and that we needed to divert the flight back to the original destination. Flight was contacted and told to stop the divert to ZZZ and to head to the original destination.five minutes after flight started back to the original destination; systems controller advised that the systems controller never authorized this flight to stop the diversion to ZZZ and that the flight should head back to ZZZ. Contacted the repositioning flight and advised there was a mistake and that they needed to head back to ZZZ. At this point crew was getting pretty upset about this as was I; as I was dealing with enroute weather and trying to get him routed to ZZZ; and ATC advised the crew that the routing south of ZZZ1 would not work because they had too much traffic volume to the south. I advised the crew I would contact the FAA traffic management unit (tmu) and see if there was another way to route the flight to ZZZ. Spoke to tmu and they advised that indeed south was not going to work and that the only way was to head up over original destination airport and north and then a turn to ZZZ after passing the weather in arkansas. Since the repositioning flight was so close to the original filed destination now; was able to talk to them via air to ground radio and gave them the new routing to ZZZ; which meant he would fly over the destination before heading to ZZZ to get passed the line of weather. At this point the crew advised that it looked like they were out of duty when they got to ZZZ. Talked to the systems controller to confirm this; and he advised that; yes; they would be done when they get to ZZZ. Relayed this info to the crew and gave them the new routing and diversion was on. 5 minutes after this; the systems controller advise me that the crew did not have enough time to go to ZZZ and then head to file destination; and to divert the flight back to filed destination. I advised the crew of this and told them to divert back to filed destination. I advised them that I thought this was an unsafe event and that I would fill out an as soon as possible. The crew agreed that it was an unsafe event with the constant diversions and then calling them off that they would fill out an as soon as possible also.multiple diversions due to miscommunication and lack of information on the part of the systems control side is what is the safety issue here. To continue to divert flights back and forth because of this is a big problem in our department. This happens a lot. And it's only a matter of time before something happens because of this. All the work that has to be done to divert a flight; i.e. Routing; weather; NOTAMS; airports; weather enroute is no small task; let alone the mindset the crews have to get; to go to an unplanned airport. And to constantly go back and forth with diversions because proper communication and research is not done; is a very big safety issue in my opinion. With all the information being passed between dispatcher and pilots; it's just too easy for something to be missed and then something happen that no one wants.we need a policy in place that states no more than one diversion and one stop diversion is the norm for our department. The systems controller and operations controllers need to due a lot better communication and research when a diversion is needed. Also the attitude toward diverting flights needs to be taken a lot more seriously.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An air carrier Dispatcher and Captain described an inflight diversion attempt to cover another mechanically down flight; but because of Dispatch system confusion; the flight was un-diverted multiple times while dealing with an extensive weather line.

Narrative: The flight was a reposition flight. Estimated time of departure out of was at several hours before midnight which was entered into computer. Flight departed with no problems. Twenty minutes after the planned departure; systems controller advised that another flight going was having maintenance issues enroute to ZZZ and I was advised to divert the repositioning flight to [that airport]. At this point the repositioning flight was approximately 100nm North of [the intended destination airport]. There was also a strong line of weather stretching from [Arkansas] South. Since I had a good amount of tanker gas onboard; it was no problem routing him South of ZZZ1 and then around to the North to ZZZ. New routing; fuel numbers; all weather and NOTAMS were sent to crew and flight started making the turn to get around the weather. 10 minutes after diversion was made; the systems controller advised that maintenance has called in ZZZ up from maintenance and that we needed to divert the flight back to the original destination. Flight was contacted and told to stop the divert to ZZZ and to head to the original destination.Five minutes after flight started back to the original destination; systems controller advised that the systems controller never authorized this flight to stop the diversion to ZZZ and that the flight should head back to ZZZ. Contacted the repositioning flight and advised there was a mistake and that they needed to head back to ZZZ. At this point crew was getting pretty upset about this as was I; as I was dealing with enroute weather and trying to get him routed to ZZZ; and ATC advised the crew that the routing South of ZZZ1 would not work because they had too much traffic volume to the South. I advised the crew I would contact the FAA Traffic Management Unit (TMU) and see if there was another way to route the flight to ZZZ. Spoke to TMU and they advised that indeed South was not going to work and that the only way was to head up over original destination airport and North and then a turn to ZZZ after passing the weather in Arkansas. Since the repositioning flight was so close to the original filed destination now; was able to talk to them via air to ground radio and gave them the new routing to ZZZ; which meant he would fly over the destination before heading to ZZZ to get passed the line of weather. At this point the crew advised that it looked like they were out of duty when they got to ZZZ. Talked to the systems controller to confirm this; and he advised that; yes; they would be done when they get to ZZZ. Relayed this info to the crew and gave them the new routing and diversion was on. 5 minutes after this; the systems controller advise me that the crew did not have enough time to go to ZZZ and then head to file destination; and to divert the flight back to filed destination. I advised the crew of this and told them to divert back to filed destination. I advised them that I thought this was an unsafe event and that I would fill out an ASAP. The crew agreed that it was an unsafe event with the constant diversions and then calling them off that they would fill out an ASAP also.Multiple Diversions due to miscommunication and lack of information on the part of the systems control side is what is the safety issue here. To continue to divert flights back and forth because of this is a big problem in our department. This happens a lot. And it's only a matter of time before something happens because of this. All the work that has to be done to divert a flight; i.e. routing; weather; NOTAMS; airports; weather enroute is no small task; let alone the mindset the crews have to get; to go to an unplanned airport. And to constantly go back and forth with diversions because proper communication and research is not done; is a very big safety issue in my opinion. With all the information being passed between dispatcher and pilots; it's just too easy for something to be missed and then something happen that no one wants.We need a policy in place that states no more than one diversion and one stop diversion is the norm for our department. The Systems controller and operations controllers need to due a lot better communication and research when a diversion is needed. Also the attitude toward diverting flights needs to be taken a lot more seriously.

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.