Narrative:

Flight to MMMX experienced an ACARS outage and was unable to be contacted from dispatch around 280 NM northeast of MMMX until on the ground. About 25 ACARS test messages were sent to the aircraft from the dispatcher with an error in response for each time over an hour period. Commercial radio was also called to initiate voice contact with the aircraft after unsuccessful ACARS attempts. Commercial radio called back several times to let us know they were still trying to contact the flight and they hadn't forgotten about us. The aircraft was out of communication with the company for roughly an hour and 4 minutes; until verified on the ground in MMMX by station agents. The ACARS system sends position reports every 10 minutes for international flights. Since the ACARS went dead; position reports were not sent thus no knowledge of aircraft position on fusion. At this point weather in mexico city was causing airborne holding for aircraft; with no visibility to aircraft situation.the dispatcher and ca were talking about a game plan for diversion when all communication was lost. The dispatcher tried ACARS; commercial radio; several avtec numbers for MMMX tower and still no communication or even an idea of the location of the aircraft.this is unacceptable as far as communication with an aircraft and dispatch whether in domestic or foreign airspace; especially when adverse weather and ATC holding are occurring. This may have been prevented by having only aircraft with SELCAL or satcom fly to MMMX. An aircraft with SELCAL would be able to be directly called by commercial radio to hook up a patch with dispatch rather than having to work thru mexican ATC with little success. An aircraft equipped with satcom would be able to be called directly by dispatch to the cockpit in the event of ACARS failure.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Dispatcher experiences a loss of ACARS communication with one of his flights while inbound to MMMX during a weather event. Attempts at voice communication through Commercial Radio are also unsuccessful. The communication outage lasts for over one hour; until the aircraft lands safely in MMMX.

Narrative: Flight to MMMX experienced an ACARS outage and was unable to be contacted from dispatch around 280 NM NE of MMMX until on the ground. About 25 ACARS test messages were sent to the aircraft from the dispatcher with an error in response for each time over an hour period. Commercial radio was also called to initiate voice contact with the aircraft after unsuccessful ACARS attempts. Commercial radio called back several times to let us know they were still trying to contact the flight and they hadn't forgotten about us. The aircraft was out of communication with the company for roughly an hour and 4 minutes; until verified on the ground in MMMX by station agents. The ACARS system sends position reports every 10 minutes for international flights. Since the ACARS went dead; position reports were not sent thus no knowledge of aircraft position on fusion. At this point weather in Mexico City was causing airborne holding for aircraft; with no visibility to aircraft situation.The Dispatcher and CA were talking about a game plan for diversion when all communication was lost. The Dispatcher tried ACARS; commercial radio; several AVTEC numbers for MMMX Tower and still no communication or even an idea of the location of the aircraft.This is unacceptable as far as communication with an aircraft and dispatch whether in domestic or foreign airspace; especially when adverse weather and ATC holding are occurring. This may have been prevented by having only aircraft with SELCAL or SATCOM fly to MMMX. An aircraft with SELCAL would be able to be directly called by commercial radio to hook up a patch with dispatch rather than having to work thru Mexican ATC with little success. An aircraft equipped with SATCOM would be able to be called directly by dispatch to the cockpit in the event of ACARS failure.

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.