B747 first officer arriving rjaa reports being instructed to hold east of norma with no other inform...

Narrative:

Arriving into tokyo narita airspace; for the second trip in a row; received inadequate holding instructions for a holding pattern not depicted on any source available to the crew. While enroute; instructed to 'hold east of norma.' we received no altitude; direction of turn; inbound or outbound course; efc (expected further clearance); or any expected instructions to define what they actually wanted; except for us to start some pattern. After frantically looking for any pattern anywhere; ipad (electronic flight bag); paper enroute charts; stars; etc; finally had to ask for more specific instructions and clearance input. We were met with 'standby' by a controller who gave no appearance of knowing why we were asking. This was all within minutes of arriving at the fix. Every aircraft receiving this clearance while we were up on frequency had similar problems. Last time they just changed our holding fix multiple times until they picked one that had something published somewhere; so they could avoid providing the proper information verbally. This time they gave us verbal holding instruction; piecemeal; after each item was specifically requested one at a time.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B747 First Officer arriving RJAA reports being instructed to hold east of NORMA with no other information. The crew cannot find a depicted holding pattern at NORMA and must ask ATC for the necessary information during multiple calls.

Narrative: Arriving into Tokyo Narita airspace; for the second trip in a row; received inadequate holding instructions for a holding pattern not depicted on any source available to the crew. While enroute; instructed to 'hold east of NORMA.' We received no altitude; direction of turn; inbound or outbound course; EFC (Expected Further Clearance); or any expected instructions to define what they actually wanted; except for us to start some pattern. After frantically looking for any pattern anywhere; iPad (electronic flight bag); paper enroute charts; STARS; etc; finally had to ask for more specific instructions and clearance input. We were met with 'standby' by a controller who gave no appearance of knowing why we were asking. This was all within minutes of arriving at the fix. Every aircraft receiving this clearance while we were up on frequency had similar problems. Last time they just changed our holding fix multiple times until they picked one that had something published somewhere; so they could avoid providing the proper information verbally. This time they gave us verbal holding instruction; piecemeal; after each item was specifically requested one at a time.

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.

Attributes
ACN	1307925
Time
Date	201511
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	RJJJ.ARTCC
State Reference	FO
Environment
Flight Conditions	IMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	B747 Undifferentiated or Other Model
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Cruise
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	First Officer
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 196 Flight Crew Total 11919 Flight Crew Type 7159
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Deviation - Procedural Clearance

B747 first officer arriving rjaa reports being instructed to hold east of norma with no other information. The crew cannot find a depicted holding pattern at norma and must ask ATC for the necessary information during multiple calls.