Narrative:

While flying in northern canada I tried to input ZZZZ; a diversion airport; into the fix page of the FMC. 'Not in database' is the response the FMC returned. I got the same response when I input ZZZZ.VOR the VOR serving this airport. I remember the previous basic FMC aircraft I had flown also lacked navigational data waypoints such as ZZZ and ZZZ1 both of which are airports; which my air carrier serves with daily flights. I called dispatch to discuss this lack of database information because I was concerned that the database had been incorrectly loaded thereby affecting the ability of this aircraft to continue in service. The dispatcher told me he would advise maintenance of the problem and have a solution ready on arrival. Later in flight I received via ACARS a message from tech service. The message read: 'captain; about your missing waypoints in FMC; due to restricted memory on non-pegasus FMC; navigation data has deleted several waypoints to save memory. ZZZ is in fact one of them. I assume so is the canadian waypoint. There is nothing maintenance can do to correct this.' I was stunned to receive this news. ZZZZ is listed in the diversion guide as a suitable airport for a diversion. If indeed a crew has to divert to this airport how is it to do this? Are we to assume that ATC will give the crew a vector to the airport? What happens if radio failure occurs on said vector? Is the crew expected to enter the geographic coordinates for the airport into the FMC or tune in the ZZZZ VOR if within range to navigate here? Even if the crew can get to the airport; how is it to execute any type of approach without listing of the approaches in the FMC? You cannot even type the name of the airport in the progress 1 page of the FMC to get an estimate of range; fuel and time of arrival. Are crews to assume that this airport is always VFR so that in a diversion you can see the airport for landing? It is incredible for me to understand how this diversion airport is not considered necessary when it is one of the only ones available in far northern canada? If the FMC cannot carry this airport then it should not be listed as a suitable divert airport. The same is true of ZZZ not being in the database because of memory constraints. During summer months there are many occasions when large thunderstorm systems develop in the ZZZ3 area causing many aircraft to divert. How can the basic B767 FMC aircraft use ZZZ as a divert airport without the supporting data in the FMC. The practice of deleting important data in the basic FMC is dangerous. Any crew in the throes of planning a diversion is already loaded up with concerns on arriving safely at the diversion airport. How does it enhance safety to increase the crew's workload by having them guess where the airport is and hope that they can fly the approach using raw data once they reach the airport?

Related reports:

Google
 

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A Non-Pegasus equipped B767 FMC did not have some authorized diversionary airport's NAVDATA installed because memory limitations could not accommodate the NAVAID and waypoint data.

Narrative: While flying in northern Canada I tried to input ZZZZ; a diversion airport; into the fix page of the FMC. 'Not in database' is the response the FMC returned. I got the same response when I input ZZZZ.VOR the VOR serving this airport. I remember the previous basic FMC aircraft I had flown also lacked navigational data waypoints such as ZZZ and ZZZ1 both of which are airports; which my air carrier serves with daily flights. I called Dispatch to discuss this lack of database information because I was concerned that the database had been incorrectly loaded thereby affecting the ability of this aircraft to continue in service. The Dispatcher told me he would advise maintenance of the problem and have a solution ready on arrival. Later in flight I received via ACARS a message from Tech Service. The message read: 'Captain; about your missing waypoints in FMC; due to restricted memory on non-Pegasus FMC; NAV DATA has deleted several waypoints to save memory. ZZZ is in fact one of them. I assume so is the Canadian waypoint. There is nothing maintenance can do to correct this.' I was stunned to receive this news. ZZZZ is listed in the Diversion Guide as a suitable airport for a diversion. If indeed a crew has to divert to this airport how is it to do this? Are we to assume that ATC will give the crew a vector to the airport? What happens if radio failure occurs on said vector? Is the crew expected to enter the geographic coordinates for the airport into the FMC or tune in the ZZZZ VOR if within range to navigate here? Even if the crew can get to the airport; how is it to execute any type of approach without listing of the approaches in the FMC? You cannot even type the name of the airport in the Progress 1 page of the FMC to get an estimate of range; fuel and time of arrival. Are crews to assume that this airport is always VFR so that in a diversion you can see the airport for landing? It is incredible for me to understand how this diversion airport is not considered necessary when it is one of the only ones available in far northern Canada? If the FMC cannot carry this airport then it should not be listed as a suitable divert airport. The same is true of ZZZ not being in the database because of memory constraints. During summer months there are many occasions when large thunderstorm systems develop in the ZZZ3 area causing many aircraft to divert. How can the basic B767 FMC aircraft use ZZZ as a divert airport without the supporting data in the FMC. The practice of deleting important data in the basic FMC is dangerous. Any crew in the throes of planning a diversion is already loaded up with concerns on arriving safely at the diversion airport. How does it enhance safety to increase the crew's workload by having them guess where the airport is and hope that they can fly the approach using raw data once they reach the airport?

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.