No Aircraft
Dispatch Dispatcher
Communication Breakdown; Distraction; Workload
No Specific Anomaly Occurred All Types
General Maintenance Action
Equipment / Tooling
The computer system experienced a total failure. I was unable to flight follow or have any awareness of the flights assigned to me. The computer screens locked up so I was unable to gain access to the program created for this sort of incident. I was able to contact 2 of my airborne flights through the ATC Center they were in to advise them of our no-comm situation and to monitor [the communications network]. The backup laptops brought in failed to function at all. There was a hastened approach taken to work way ahead just in case the computers crashed again. Coincidentally; an on-duty Dispatcher was able to use his phone as a hotspot and sign in on his personal laptop during this incident. Although the system got back to functioning I thought there was a hastened approach taken to work ahead just in case the computers crashed again. This one hour plus incident was pretty exhausting for all of us and to rush into working ahead without a chance to take a break once things were restored should have been avoided I think.
Air Carrier Dispatcher describes a one plus hour computer outage and the difficulties encountered trying to work without it.