B777 Undifferentiated or Other Model
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Situational Awareness
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural FAR; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Inflight Event / Encounter Fuel Issue
General None Reported / Taken
Company Policy; Equipment / Tooling; Procedure; Human Factors
As per our Operation Specifications 'Planned Redispatch or Rerelease En Route;' this flight was unable to obtain the Required Updated Fuel in Time from the Recleared Point IMRAD to continue on to the final destination. The aircraft crossed waypoint 'IMRAD' at XA48 at FL370 with 23;500kg of fuel on board. Required fuel was finally provided at XB04 for 20;578kg. Then another required fuel of 18;685kg came later through ACARS at XB07. Opsec Section 4 states the following: A new operational analysis must be conducted within 2 hours prior to the flight's arrival at the planned redispatch or rerelease point. In preparing the new operational analysis; the dispatcher or person designated to exercise operational control (other than the pilot in command) must: (a) Conduct an updated fuel analysis based on the current route of flight; wind conditions; and aircraft weight on the route from the planned redispatch or rerelease point to the intended destination airport and ay required alternate airports; and........ According to the dispatcher; the system was offline and was unable to compute a new Flight Plan from the recleared point. In summary the Recleared Flight Release was not issued until after crossing the Recleared Point. Not sure if this was legal; since the information should have been obtained before crossing the Recleared Point. The D.O. was in the Dispatch Center and instructed us to continue beyond the Recleared point until the system came back online. We therefore proceeded and obtained the official numbers 16 minutes past the recleared point. We then continued to our destination with no further incident. Dispatch did not have a backup system.  Dispatch should obtain a backup system to avoid any further similar incident.
I was in the bunk bed for crew rest at the time of this event. The following narrative is what I was informed when I reported back in flight deck.At approximately 2:45 prior to estimated rerelease (RR) point; Ops Control sent a message via ACARS to the aircraft requesting estimated time; fuel on board; and altitude for the planned rerelease point. Information was provided as requested to Ops Control by the IRO's on the flight deck as the PIC and FO were crew resting in the bunks.At around 1:40 prior to the rerelease point; the crew queried Ops Control via ACARS about the destination and alternate weather; any notam changes; and the recalculated fuel required at the RR point. Ops Control replied stating that the flight planning software was currently down; and that the required fuel was unable to be calculated and that the crew should stand by until further notified by Ops Control. Weather for the destination and alternate airports was sent at this time; and no new notams were in effect.Around 30 minutes prior to the RR point; Ops Control was contacted by the crew via satphone and asked again about fuel required. The crew was told to call back in 10 minutes if no fuel number was sent by Ops Control via ACARS. The crew contacted the PIC out of rest to come to the flight deck at about this time.Ops Control was called again about 10 minutes later via satphone; the crew discussed the still inoperative flight planning system with Ops and the need to make a decision whether a diversion was to be planned; or if any other option was available such as a hold prior to the RR waypoint. Ops Control asked how much 'extra' fuel we had onboard as shown on the flight plan at the last waypoint crossed; which was around 1800 kilos. The crew was told that the DO was in the Ops Control area and was telling the Ops controller that we could proceed beyond the RR point to the next waypoint due to the fact of having this 'extra' fuel available. The crew questioned the legality of continuing beyond the RR point without actually having the required fuel calculation to continue; and was told that the DO was authorizing this.The crew was told to continue past the RR waypoint and six other waypoints several times towards the destination airport before finally receiving the recalculated fuel required for the rerelease 16 minutes after passing the RR point.
B777 flight crew reported being unable to receive a rereleased fuel required at their planned redispatch point due to the fact that the flight planning software was currently down. The crew was told to continue toward their destination and the required fuel was finally sent 16 minutes past the redispatch point.