Narrative:

There were lots of thunderstorms en route; with a line of thunderstorms as we were approaching ZZZ. We went around the first area of thunderstorms with relative ease; although we took a long deviation. As we got within 160 miles of ZZZ; we started painting a large return on radar just west of the airport. As we got a little closer I tried to contact dispatch through ACARS to get a better idea of the severity of the storm; size; movement and to establish a plan B. We received no response. I sent a new ACARS message every few minutes. I tried to call company via VHF; but we must have been too low; so I kept sending ACARS messages. We finally got a response after about 20 minutes or so. The response message said something like 'sorry; the original dispatcher left and never told me you were still in the air'. So it sounds like because of the original dispatcher's failure to communicate to the next dispatcher that he/she had an active flight in the air; nobody was watching us for who knows how long. On that particular night we could have used a little bit of help when we first tried to contact dispatch. The one good thing is that I had an extra 1300 lbs of tankering fuel and we were able to wait out the storm. We had left very late due to a gate return and aircraft swap. Our alternate and the surrounding area weather was good but at that time of the night; without any help; we would have taken a gamble as far as going to any of those airports without knowing if those stations were staffed. In addition to that; the ZZZ tower was closed for the night; and we were getting all our weather information from our radar and the ASOS. With severe weather around we could have used a bit more help than that early on. Our new dispatcher was helpful even though he/she had to play catch-up with us.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: CRJ200 Captain reports inability to contact Dispatch via ACARS during late night flight in poor weather to non-towered airport. Contact is eventually made and dispatcher informs that previous dispatcher had gone home and failed to hand off the flight.

Narrative: There were lots of thunderstorms en route; with a line of thunderstorms as we were approaching ZZZ. We went around the first area of thunderstorms with relative ease; although we took a long deviation. As we got within 160 miles of ZZZ; we started painting a large return on radar just west of the airport. As we got a little closer I tried to contact Dispatch through ACARS to get a better idea of the severity of the storm; size; movement and to establish a plan B. We received no response. I sent a new ACARS message every few minutes. I tried to call company via VHF; but we must have been too low; so I kept sending ACARS messages. We finally got a response after about 20 minutes or so. The response message said something like 'Sorry; the original dispatcher left and never told me you were still in the air'. So it sounds like because of the original dispatcher's failure to communicate to the next dispatcher that he/she had an active flight in the air; nobody was watching us for who knows how long. On that particular night we could have used a little bit of help when we first tried to contact Dispatch. The one good thing is that I had an extra 1300 lbs of tankering fuel and we were able to wait out the storm. We had left very late due to a gate return and aircraft swap. Our alternate and the surrounding area weather was good but at that time of the night; without any help; we would have taken a gamble as far as going to any of those airports without knowing if those stations were staffed. In addition to that; the ZZZ tower was closed for the night; and we were getting all our weather information from our radar and the ASOS. With severe weather around we could have used a bit more help than that early on. Our new dispatcher was helpful even though he/she had to play catch-up with us.

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.