Widebody; Low Wing; 2 Turbojet Eng
Dispatch Dispatcher
Situational Awareness; Confusion; Communication Breakdown
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural FAR; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence
Flight Crew Requested ATC Assistance / Clarification; Flight Crew Took Evasive Action
ATC Equipment / Nav Facility / Buildings; Procedure; Weather
Released flight with ETOPS alternates of RJCC/MDY/CDB. MDY (Midway Island) has NOTAM for ASOS not reporting visibility or altimeter setting; but had contacted MDY Operations previously and had e-mail confirmation that they would provide observations during daylight hours. After the flight departed and airborne; looked at e-mail again and realized that they had also included in their e-mail that their observations would not include an altimeter setting. Per the Jeppesen Charts; all approaches into MDY require a local altimeter setting or they are not authorized. Flight not yet in ETOPS area of operations; and RJCC/CDB by themselves covered the ETOPS area of operations. Since RJCC/CDB covered the ETOPS area of operations; and flight had not yet entered ETOPS; contacted crew via ACARS and advised them to amend their release and removed MDY as an ETOPS alternate. Sent the crew a new ETOPS critical fuel summary based on just RJCC/CDB. Crew accepted amendment and pressed on.
A a Dispatcher released an oceanic flight with MDY as an ETOPS alternate but it was not legal because of inadequate weather information. So while airborne; he altered the flight's ETOPS alternates.