Narrative:

Dispatcher had stepped away while OJT (on job training) dispatcher was on the desk. Flight notified the dispatcher of a low oil pressure on the #1 engine. There was an attempt to patch twice and the call went to the chief dispatcher and the transfer failed; the second time the crew reports there was just hold music. Dispatch attempted to call and was unable to connect. Finally patch was established; when the dispatcher returned. The engine had not been shut down and the dispatcher and captain agreed on return to field. The flight was near ETOPS entry. There was no oil pressure showing without the EICAS alert. Coordination of the chief and operations manager; mx was handled. Dispatch was waiting to hear when the engine was shut down and had the QRH out and was under the assumption that the engine would be secure shortly. The return to field (us command) and release was completed. Sabre placed the aircraft on the ground and the dispatcher was unable to pull position reports and the acars were now coming into the system from the next leg from the unreleased portion of dv. It took time figure out why the system was not providing correct information. The crew began dumping fuel from the center tank to reduce landing weight. Dispatch requested position reports to provide landing data. No position reports were sent or accepted by the ACARS requests. A time and burn calculation was done to estimate landing weights and a position report entered into sabre to reflect the dumped fuel and new estimated gross weight. Landing data was sent and noted that this was estimated due to the lack of current fuel and position report.once on the ground the crew reported the communication issues. They also reported that the engine was shutdown at 40NM from the field.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Air Carrier Dispatcher reported difficulty communicating with a flight that was experiencing an engine problem and was returning to departure airport.

Narrative: Dispatcher had stepped away while OJT (On Job Training) dispatcher was on the desk. Flight notified the Dispatcher of a low oil pressure on the #1 engine. There was an attempt to patch twice and the call went to the Chief Dispatcher and the transfer failed; the second time the crew reports there was just hold music. Dispatch attempted to call and was unable to connect. Finally patch was established; when the Dispatcher returned. The engine had not been shut down and the Dispatcher and Captain agreed on return to field. The flight was near ETOPS entry. There was no oil pressure showing without the EICAS alert. Coordination of the Chief and OPS manager; MX was handled. Dispatch was waiting to hear when the engine was shut down and had the QRH out and was under the assumption that the engine would be secure shortly. The Return to field (US command) and release was completed. Sabre placed the aircraft on the ground and the dispatcher was unable to pull position reports and the ACARs were now coming into the system from the next leg from the unreleased portion of DV. It took time figure out why the system was not providing correct information. The crew began dumping fuel from the center tank to reduce landing weight. Dispatch requested position reports to provide landing data. No position reports were sent or accepted by the ACARS requests. A time and burn calculation was done to estimate landing weights and a position report entered into Sabre to reflect the dumped fuel and new estimated gross weight. Landing data was sent and noted that this was estimated due to the lack of current fuel and position report.Once on the ground the crew reported the communication issues. They also reported that the engine was shutdown at 40NM from the field.

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.