Narrative:

During a training flight instructor pilot (ip)/ PIC directed the aircraft divert for weather that had developed over and in the vicinity of [the airport]. Air crew had filed VFR via foreflight and had received flight following. Crew canceled flight following en route; intending to check in and get picked up with approach. Weather prevented safe approach; so the aircrew uneventfully diverted to ZZZ. Although aircrew talked to center; the crew did not talk to FSS to update their destination and landing time on the VFR flight plan. Upon landing; the ip received notification on foreflight that the flight was overdue and needed to be closed out.ip closed the flight plan on foreflight; as well as called FSS on the ground to ensure the plan had been closed out. FSS had left two voicemail's on the ip's phone. Flight was 1 hour overdue from the expected land time; and had not landed at the VFR filed destination. Ip was informed by FSS that search and rescue (sar) had been activated. It's unknown how far into their activation process they were in; but the process was stopped and cleared up with FSS upon receipt of the phone call. Also; the aircrew did not have the proper destination contact information listed in the flight plan; thus when FSS called the airport; no record was listed that we were inbound. Safe decision to divert; although potentially hazardous to sar personnel and assets which could have been alleviated with and en route call to FSS.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: VFR training flight diverted to intermediate airport short of destination due to weather. Mis-communication occurred between flight service and ATC resulted in no closed out flight plan.

Narrative: During a training flight Instructor Pilot (IP)/ PIC directed the aircraft divert for weather that had developed over and in the vicinity of [the airport]. Air crew had filed VFR via ForeFlight and had received flight following. Crew canceled Flight Following en route; intending to check in and get picked up with Approach. Weather prevented safe approach; so the aircrew uneventfully diverted to ZZZ. Although aircrew talked to Center; the crew did not talk to FSS to update their destination and landing time on the VFR flight plan. Upon landing; the IP received notification on ForeFlight that the flight was overdue and needed to be closed out.IP closed the flight plan on ForeFlight; as well as called FSS on the ground to ensure the plan had been closed out. FSS had left two voicemail's on the IP's phone. Flight was 1 hour overdue from the expected land time; and had not landed at the VFR filed destination. IP was informed by FSS that Search and Rescue (SAR) had been activated. It's unknown how far into their activation process they were in; but the process was stopped and cleared up with FSS upon receipt of the phone call. Also; the aircrew did not have the proper destination contact information listed in the flight plan; thus when FSS called the airport; no record was listed that we were inbound. Safe decision to divert; although potentially hazardous to SAR personnel and assets which could have been alleviated with and en route call to FSS.

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.