B767 flight crew reports inability to communicate with dispatch in a timely manor; when a last minut...

Narrative:

We received an ACARS message to change our alternate to yvr as bfi had just gone below minimums. Sea weather was good as destination but not as alternate. We could make sea our destination if bfi remained below minimums. After monitoring bfi it appeared that it would not come up at our arrival time. Asked to make our destination sea. Dispatch asked that we hold until our fuel would allow us an approach into sea with fuel for our alternate. We entered the hold at olympia at FL240 with fuel at 20.5. I estimated that we would have enough fuel for 4 laps in holding before starting an approach into sea. Weather at sea was deteriorating and was 3/4 mile at time of holding. Dispatch informed us that they would prefer we land at sea rather than yvr. With 17.0 fuel remaining we informed dispatch that we were making sea our destination and started our descent into sea for approach to runway 16C. About 50 seconds after starting our descent; approach informed us that visibility at bfi had just gone to 5;000 would we like to go there? We were about ten minutes out of bfi at 10;000 ft. I made the decision to go to bfi. We sent a message to dispatch for a diversion to bfi. The approach was uneventful we broke out at minimums and landed at bfi. We did not receive verification from dispatch. One other aircraft landed shortly after we did then I believe the field went below minimums again. After landing we talked with other crews and they stated that they had communications problems with dispatch. I know the book says that we must communicate with dispatch when changes to our flight need to be made; but the timing on this flight ended up with time critical decisions that precluded the smooth interaction with the company. I don't know how we could improve this type of situation without restricting ourselves.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B767 flight crew reports inability to communicate with Dispatch in a timely manor; when a last minute decision is made to land at the original destination due to weather improvement.

Narrative: We received an ACARS message to change our alternate to YVR as BFI had just gone below minimums. SEA weather was good as destination but not as alternate. We could make SEA our destination if BFI remained below minimums. After monitoring BFI it appeared that it would not come up at our arrival time. Asked to make our destination SEA. Dispatch asked that we hold until our fuel would allow us an approach into SEA with fuel for our alternate. We entered the hold at Olympia at FL240 with fuel at 20.5. I estimated that we would have enough fuel for 4 laps in holding before starting an approach into SEA. Weather at SEA was deteriorating and was 3/4 mile at time of holding. Dispatch informed us that they would prefer we land at SEA rather than YVR. With 17.0 fuel remaining we informed Dispatch that we were making SEA our destination and started our descent into SEA for approach to Runway 16C. About 50 seconds after starting our descent; Approach informed us that visibility at BFI had just gone to 5;000 would we like to go there? We were about ten minutes out of BFI at 10;000 FT. I made the decision to go to BFI. We sent a message to Dispatch for a diversion to BFI. The approach was uneventful we broke out at minimums and landed at BFI. We did not receive verification from Dispatch. One other aircraft landed shortly after we did then I believe the field went below minimums again. After landing we talked with other crews and they stated that they had communications problems with Dispatch. I know the book says that we must communicate with Dispatch when changes to our flight need to be made; but the timing on this flight ended up with time critical decisions that precluded the smooth interaction with the company. I don't know how we could improve this type of situation without restricting ourselves.

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.

Attributes
ACN	986048
Time
Date	201112
Local Time Of Day	0001-0600
Place
Locale Reference	BFI.Airport
State Reference	WA
Environment
Light	Night
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	B767-300 and 300 ER
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Descent
Route In Use	Vectors
Person 1
Function	Pilot Flying Captain
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 50 Flight Crew Total 20000 Flight Crew Type 675
Person 2
Function	Pilot Not Flying First Officer
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 100 Flight Crew Total 13000 Flight Crew Type 1100
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence

B767 flight crew reports inability to communicate with dispatch in a timely manor; when a last minute decision is made to land at the original destination due to weather improvement.