Regional Jet 200 ER/LR (CRJ200)
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Distraction; Other / Unknown; Situational Awareness
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural FAR; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Human Factors; Procedure
[This is] a continuing example of an oblivious pettifogger who deliberately interrupted the flight during sterile cockpit because they were not performing their regulatory required job duties. Dispatch continued to disrupt the flight after being notified of sterile cockpit. The crew was in the process of maneuvering the aircraft in a congested area with other aircraft in motion confined in an area with numerous physical hazards. During this operation the Dispatcher sent an ACARS; whose 90 db alert interrupted operations and blocked radio communications; asking about why the ATC clearance had not been picked up. (The ATC clearance had been obtained some time prior to engine start; and demonstrates that the Dispatcher was not following the flight.) The crew responded informing her that we were in 'Sterile Cockpit'. While Number 1 for departure; with a flight inbound on short final for the departure runway; we received yet another ACARS Alert from Dispatch asking for an estimated departure time. This intrusion degraded the safety of the flight at a critical juncture! The action by the Dispatcher of repeatedly breaking sterile cockpit placed the flight in a degraded safety profile which has become the precursor to events and upsets which take place with alarming regularity: runway incursions; aircraft incidents resulting in substantial monetary damage; clearance deviations; and worse. This situation is a conspicuous example of the Dispatcher's lack of situational awareness of where individual flights are and in what phase of flight they are operating.
CRJ200 Captain laments being distracted by ACARS messages from his Dispatcher during taxi and preparation for takeoff. The ACARS message alert produces a very loud chime in the cockpit.