B767-300 and 300 ER
Dispatch Dispatcher
Communication Breakdown
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Weight And Balance; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural FAR
Flight Crew Became Reoriented
Human Factors
Flight was a RON (Remain Overnight) due to a maintenance issue. Upon turnover I was advised that the crew was deadheading inbound and would contact me upon arrival. After seeing an automatic update for the departure time being posted I contacted the station to get an update since I had not yet heard from the crew. The station advised that the crew was already on the aircraft and had taken off. I asked the station how this occurred as I had not yet issued a new release for today's flight. Station replied that they had pulled the paperwork and received a fuel slip form the load agent for the flight. I explained that the paperwork they pulled was yesterdays and not current and that the flight had not been authorized. The station did not understand this concept nor could they confirm the current status of the flight. I contacted the Tower and confirmed that the flight had already departed and taken off. Once the flight climbed above 10;000 FT I sent a complete flight plan to the ACARS and followed up with the crew via SATCOM. Due to the aircraft being previously fueled for the same flight at a higher payload; fuel requirements based on the current flight release were met and the captain and I concurred on the continuance of the flight. An amendment was made and the flight continued to destination with the correct paperwork.The event occurred due to a communication failure and failure of the station personnel to understand that new paperwork was required. My understanding that the crew would contact me upon arrival should have been followed up earlier but a medical emergency on another flight distracted me from contacting the station. Being that the flight had not been released and was still on the ground it did not rank high on my priority list. I did not know that the station was moving forward to send the flight with the old paperwork. Additionally; I still am not sure how the flight received a closeout based on the old flight plan.
Gate agent gave the crew all the pertinent paperwork for our flight. After takeoff I was the [Relief Pilot] and computed our rest breaks for the flight and went back to first class to start my rest. When I came back the CA and FO informed me that we took off with yesterday's flight plan and that dispatch notified us and sent us the new flight plan. ATC was notified to make sure we were on the correct flight path/plan. As fate would have it; we had more than 'MIN FUEL' for the current release and filed the same route as the current flight plan. Have all crew members check and pay more attention to details of the flight plans and paper work.
Dispatcher discovers that a B767 flight he is to dispatch has departed without a current dispatch release. The aircraft had been on an unscheduled overnight due to maintenance and the outbound crew had been handed the prior days release which was not detected. A new release is issued via ACARS.