Narrative:

I downloaded my flight plan approximately one hour prior to the captain downloading his. As I was reading my notams in the car on the way to the airport I commented to the captain that there were alternate missed approach instructions for 28L and 28R in sfo. Later on; while we were in cruise the captain commented to me that he couldn't find the notams that I was talking about regarding the alternate missed approach instructions. I remarked that it was the fifth NOTAM down. He looked again and didn't have it and then showed me his copy of the notams on his ipad and he indeed didn't have it. In total there were 5 notams that I had; and that he didn't have. All 5 of these notams referred to sfo VOR being out of service; but there was no separate NOTAM that I had for sfo VOR. I sent a message to dispatch and queried him to ascertain which of us had the correct information. He determined that the notams I had were no longer in existence. We figure that they must have either been canceled or expired in the one hour period between when I downloaded my flight plan and when the captain downloaded his flight plan.some major factors are at play here. First of all; some of the notams that we get in our packets have time and date ranges when they are effective; and some do not. In this case the 5 notams that I had in mine that referred to sfo VOR being out of service; and having alternate missed approach instructions did not have effective times listed with them. Had that been on there we may have been able to see that it wouldn't have been active any longer; but that information was not provided. At other times it is provided; like when a runway or taxiway closes; we get the time when it will close or reopen. I am not sure why we don't have effective times for all notams; but it could be an issue like it was in this case.another factor is that had we both downloaded the flight plan when I downloaded it; we both would have had the alternate missed approach instructions in our notams and we wouldn't have thought twice about them. This is an issue because the alternate missed approach in this case was wildly different from published. Had we done a go around and been instructed to fly the published missed; we would have flown the alternate missed approach instructions from the notams instead of what was published on the approach charts.in the case of 28L the published missed approach has you climb to 4000 ft on the sfo 275 radial and hold at olymm. In the case of the alternate missed from the notams it has you climb to 2100 ft; then climbing left turn up to 5000 ft and direct to sjc VOR and hold. These are wildly different. One is straight out; the other is a u-turn. One is at 4000 ft; and the other is at 5000 ft. Had we been told to do the published missed and flown the one from the notams; the controllers would have had no idea what we were doing and we may have lost separation from another aircraft; we would have had an altitude deviation; and we would have had a navigational deviation. This is a dangerous situation and ripe for a midair.obviously the chances of being told to do the published missed without further instructions or query is virtually zero; but this is a situation which should not; and cannot happen. I am glad that we caught this now when it wasn't an actual issue; before it bites somebody in the future.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A319 First Officer reported a confusing situation that arose when a NOTAM was canceled before arrival that drastically changed the missed approach instructions.

Narrative: I downloaded my flight plan approximately one hour prior to the captain downloading his. As I was reading my NOTAMs in the car on the way to the airport I commented to the captain that there were alternate missed approach instructions for 28L and 28R in SFO. Later on; while we were in cruise the Captain commented to me that he couldn't find the NOTAMs that I was talking about regarding the alternate missed approach instructions. I remarked that it was the fifth NOTAM down. He looked again and didn't have it and then showed me his copy of the NOTAMs on his iPad and he indeed didn't have it. In total there were 5 NOTAMs that I had; and that he didn't have. All 5 of these NOTAMs referred to SFO VOR being out of service; but there was no separate NOTAM that I had for SFO VOR. I sent a message to dispatch and queried him to ascertain which of us had the correct information. He determined that the NOTAMs I had were no longer in existence. We figure that they must have either been canceled or expired in the one hour period between when I downloaded my flight plan and when the Captain downloaded his flight plan.Some major factors are at play here. First of all; some of the NOTAMs that we get in our packets have time and date ranges when they are effective; and some do not. In this case the 5 NOTAMs that I had in mine that referred to SFO VOR being out of service; and having alternate missed approach instructions did not have effective times listed with them. Had that been on there we may have been able to see that it wouldn't have been active any longer; but that information was not provided. At other times it is provided; like when a runway or taxiway closes; we get the time when it will close or reopen. I am not sure why we don't have effective times for all NOTAMs; but it could be an issue like it was in this case.Another factor is that had we both downloaded the flight plan when I downloaded it; we both would have had the alternate missed approach instructions in our NOTAMs and we wouldn't have thought twice about them. This is an issue because the alternate missed approach in this case was wildly different from published. Had we done a go around and been instructed to fly the published missed; we would have flown the alternate missed approach instructions from the NOTAMs instead of what was published on the approach charts.In the case of 28L the published missed approach has you climb to 4000 ft on the SFO 275 radial and hold at OLYMM. In the case of the alternate missed from the NOTAMs it has you climb to 2100 ft; then climbing left turn up to 5000 ft and direct to SJC VOR and hold. These are wildly different. One is straight out; the other is a U-turn. One is at 4000 ft; and the other is at 5000 ft. Had we been told to do the published missed and flown the one from the NOTAMs; the controllers would have had no idea what we were doing and we may have lost separation from another aircraft; we would have had an altitude deviation; and we would have had a navigational deviation. This is a dangerous situation and ripe for a midair.Obviously the chances of being told to do the published missed without further instructions or query is virtually zero; but this is a situation which should not; and cannot happen. I am glad that we caught this now when it wasn't an actual issue; before it bites somebody in the future.

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.