Light Transport; Low Wing; 2 Turbojet Eng
Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Air Traffic Control Time Certified In Pos 1 (yrs) 20
Human-Machine Interface; Situational Awareness
ATC Issue All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Air Traffic Control Issued New Clearance
ATC Equipment / Nav Facility / Buildings; Company Policy; Procedure
We are seeing a number of flights where FRC (Full Route Clearance) is added in completely inappropriate and unsafe parts of the flight plan remarks. The FRC remark was all the way at the end and did not appear on the proposed departure strip. The only reason I noticed the FRC in this case was because I requested a Full Route Strip to see the aircraft destination. I would have never known to issue this aircraft an FRC had I not requested an FR strip. Clearances eligible to be sent via PDC would not be blocked in this instance since TDLS (Tower Data Link System) only looks at about the first 5-10 remarks characters for the FRC indication. So this aircraft could have easily been sent a PDC and no FRC. In the case of CPDLC; again TDLS would not uplink and FRC to the flight deck since it did not see an FRC indication in the correct part of the flight plan remarks. I submitted another AIMS ticket today in the hopes that this issue gets timely and decisive corrective action; and in checking AIMS I found other tickets opened by other terminals who have seen this or a similar problem. See 7110.65 paragraph 4-3-3b: If it is necessary to modify a filed route of flight in order to achieve computer acceptance...the contraction 'FRC'...or 'FRC/(fix)' will be added to the remarks. 'FRC' or 'FRC/(fix)' must always be the first item of intra-center remarks. We first need to find out how users are able to even put FRC in the remarks of their own flight plans; and then work with them to comply with the FAAH 7110.65 requirements. Ideally they should be filing clearances that don't necessitate FRC in the remarks; or only place FRC in the remarks when truly necessary. I have had instances where I issued the FRC and then the pilots says; 'that was exactly what we filed; why was that an FRC?'
Tower Controller reported the Full Route Clearance (FRC) indicator printed in the remarks section was located where it may not be visible to the Controller resulting in an aircraft not receiving the correct departure clearance.