Dispatch Dispatcher
Situational Awareness; Confusion; Communication Breakdown
No Specific Anomaly Occurred All Types
General None Reported / Taken
Company Policy; Human Factors
The culmination of events on [this day] led to an overall lack of situational awareness and loss of operational control. The following is a brief description of all events. 1) Dispatch [computer system] was not operating properly. Example: receive an ACARS and the chime would not sound. Receive an ACARS and once clicked on; the page would be blank or you would just get an error message. Dispatch [computer system] had to reboot throughout the morning. I lost track of the times. I believe it was 6 times before noon. These inconveniences lead to poor flight monitoring and difficult crew briefings. I was either unable to pull up the info needed in a timely fashion or was in the middle of a reboot when the crew needed information. 2) FLT XXX an out and back test flight. I received notice of this flight 20 minutes before its scheduled departure; by the Captain. He gave me all the information necessary to quickly plan the flight. EVERY time I calculated the flight plan Sabre logged off. Every time. [The Chief Dispatcher] could not find the problem and this resulted in him taking over the flight at his desk. This resulted in multiple calls from the crew and eventually the flight departed; almost 2 hours behind schedule. 3) Ghost restricted areas on Sabre. While working the NY Metro flights; I use the wind route hook ups. I noticed one of my [transcon] flights had an odd routing. I fixed it; built my own route and moved on. Next flight I attempted to use the wind route hook up. The plan did a strange zig zag to ZZZ-ZZZ1. I had [The Chief Dispatcher] look into this. There were ACTIVE restricted areas on my desk! Put in by other dispatchers currently working the floor. Two very important things to note. First they restricted areas were active; yet not visible on the map. So the flight was routing around something I could not see. Second [The Chief Dispatcher] discovered the dispatchers entered these areas correctly. They did not use 'global' but 'dispatcher' which is correct. While he worked the problem; I made my own route. Later I went back to the flight to add an alternate. I did not recheck the route on the map after adding the alternate. I should not have to do this. However... Sabre reoptimized my old route and put the flight back on the ZZZ-ZZZ1 zig zag. I did not catch this. I should not have to! The Captain called; irate. The most ridiculous route he has ever seen. I looked like an idiot. I think that infuriates me more than anything!! We are beginning to look like chumps. All of the interruptions; system failures and work-arounds on [this day] were the cause of me barely keeping my head above water. I sent out only a fraction of the ACARS updates I should; and would if we had a better system. Lack of situational awareness is through the roof. Operational control is down. This should not happen. This is the last day I will help the company with 'keeping up with the worksheet' and workarounds. Every 'I' will be dotted every 'T' will be crossed. Checked and double checked throughout the day. If I fall behind; so be it... it's my ticket and reputation that is on the line not management's.
Dispatcher reports repetitive problems with the dispatch workstations; including flight planning and communications.