Commercial Fixed Wing
Dispatch Dispatcher
Communication Breakdown; Workload
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence
Flight Crew Became Reoriented; Flight Crew Took Evasive Action
Company Policy; Weather; Procedure; Environment - Non Weather Related; Human Factors
I was working a desk during bad weather today; which included a line of thunderstorms and low visibility in the northeast. Many flights were dispatched using an exemption. With the current work load it is very difficult to maintain operational control when reroutes; holds; amended TAFs; phone calls;management requests to contact crews and diversions start coming in. Six hours of my day felt helpless as I tried to keep up with everything and maintain operational control as I pulled in help from fellow dispatchers.Several times I advised management that I was getting behind but nothing ever happened. Thankfully; another Dispatcher who had VFR weather on his flights helped divide some of my upcoming flights to give me time to work reroutes; holds; amendments and diversions. I then stayed an hour after my shift in overtime to amend alternates that had gone down during the chaos.Having four major airports on one desk could be a big part of it. However; any desk that has 60 flights on it will struggle during a weather challenging day. There isn't a way to stay up on everything unless only one of those major cities goes down or on a VFR day. There wasn't anyone to help or give guidance when everything started to fall apart because so many others near me were in the same situation. With several floater shifts it may be a good idea to open up more desks or at least make sure someone is brought in during weather events. Management knew the situation; but didn't free up my work load except to try and read my desk communication and respond; not knowing that another Dispatcher had taken the problem on because I asked them directly for help. Better communication between the dispatcher and management to see what is needed exactly would be helpful.
A Dispatcher working described being overloaded because of bad weather in the northeast. He was not given assistance by management even though other dispatchers were working less demanding flights in VFR conditions.