Narrative:

Nearly an hour after sending the flight release; and only minutes before scheduled departure; an out of service MEL was placed on the aircraft for excessive oil consumption which maintenance needed to check out before the flight could be released for departure. However; being so close to departure time already; not myself; the crew; or even the dispatch coordinators knew anything about it; so the plane pushed back from the gate. Then I finally got the alert on my desk that the plane was tagged out of service and cannot depart. I contacted the crew; but in the end the coordinators allowed the plane to depart and simply cancelled the MEL; although this potentially serious issue still existed.I did not contact the crew on the radio; I only sent them an ACARS because I incorrectly assumed that such an issue would have been something the crew would have already known about; and should have already been in contact with maintenance. It wasn't until after the pilot called me that I found out he knew nothing about his plane being tagged out of service or having any oil issues. It seemed that this MEL was added without anyone else's knowledge for I don't know what reason; or how it was determined that the aircraft was having oil consumption issues without prior consultation with this pilot; as I assumed would have been the case.quite simply this was just a breakdown of communication between maintenance; dispatch; and the crew. While on the line with the pilot; I asked the coordinators if they would like him to return to the gate so the maintenance check could be performed; but they told me to just let him go and cancelled the MEL. The flight took no delay.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: CRJ-700 Dispatcher reported an aircraft he was working departed with a known excessive oil consumption issue.

Narrative: Nearly an hour after sending the flight release; and only minutes before scheduled departure; an out of service MEL was placed on the aircraft for excessive oil consumption which maintenance needed to check out before the flight could be released for departure. However; being so close to departure time already; not myself; the crew; or even the dispatch coordinators knew anything about it; so the plane pushed back from the gate. Then I finally got the alert on my desk that the plane was tagged out of service and cannot depart. I contacted the crew; but in the end the coordinators allowed the plane to depart and simply cancelled the MEL; although this potentially serious issue still existed.I did not contact the crew on the radio; I only sent them an ACARS because I incorrectly assumed that such an issue would have been something the crew would have already known about; and should have already been in contact with maintenance. It wasn't until after the pilot called me that I found out he knew nothing about his plane being tagged out of service or having any oil issues. It seemed that this MEL was added without anyone else's knowledge for I don't know what reason; or how it was determined that the aircraft was having oil consumption issues without prior consultation with this pilot; as I assumed would have been the case.Quite simply this was just a breakdown of communication between maintenance; dispatch; and the crew. While on the line with the pilot; I asked the coordinators if they would like him to return to the gate so the maintenance check could be performed; but they told me to just let him go and cancelled the MEL. The flight took no delay.

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.