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A dispatcher reported that the communications link between dispatch; aircraft and operations was not available because the link with their communications partner was lost. A manual backup should be restored so that flight crews and operations can calculate takeoff numbers and speeds.
| Attributes | |
| ACN | 893992 |
| Time | |
| Date | 201006 |
| Local Time Of Day | 0601-1200 |
| Environment | |
| Light | Daylight |
| Aircraft 1 | |
| Make Model Name | Commercial Fixed Wing |
| Operating Under FAR Part | Part 121 |
| Flight Phase | Parked |
| Person 1 | |
| Function | Dispatcher |
| Qualification | Dispatch Dispatcher |
| Events | |
| Anomaly | Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Deviation - Procedural Weight And Balance |
Narrative:
The link to dispatch and the aircraft went down; dispatch and flight crew were unable to get numbers to depart and new releases could not be generated. Myself and other dispatchers became task saturated with the influx of phone calls from crew and stations thus causing possible loss of situational awareness. Eventually a partial link was established with the fdp (flight data processing) tool. Dispatch had to do manual fdp tool for all of the flights. This continued off and on for several hours. A heavy load of aircraft; phone calls and manual fdp tool took time away from flight following and weather monitoring. This is not the first time we have lost connection with our communications relay partner and with those events and with the events of today it would be in the best interest of pilots; dispatchers and the operation if the wiz-wheels would be brought back into service so the pilots can get access to a secondary method for weight and balance and V numbers. The ACARS weight and balance has been unreliable at best and dispatchers regularly have to use the fdp tool for the aircraft. On the flight release it might be better to use a limited number of v-speeds for weight since the current runway data is of little use for the pilots and for use if the wiz-wheel is re-established.
Original NASA ASRS Text
Title: A Dispatcher reported that the communications link between dispatch; aircraft and operations was not available because the link with their communications partner was lost. A manual backup should be restored so that flight crews and operations can calculate takeoff numbers and speeds.
Narrative: The link to dispatch and the aircraft went down; dispatch and flight crew were unable to get numbers to depart and new releases could not be generated. Myself and other dispatchers became task saturated with the influx of phone calls from crew and stations thus causing possible loss of situational awareness. Eventually a partial link was established with the FDP (Flight Data Processing) tool. Dispatch had to do manual FDP tool for all of the flights. This continued off and on for several hours. A heavy load of aircraft; phone calls and manual FDP tool took time away from flight following and weather monitoring. This is not the first time we have lost connection with our communications relay partner and with those events and with the events of today it would be in the best interest of pilots; dispatchers and the operation if the wiz-wheels would be brought back into service so the pilots can get access to a secondary method for weight and balance and V numbers. The ACARS weight and balance has been unreliable at best and dispatchers regularly have to use the FDP tool for the aircraft. On the flight release it might be better to use a limited number of v-speeds for weight since the current runway data is of little use for the pilots and for use if the wiz-wheel is re-established.
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.