MD-11
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 100; Flight Crew Total 8000; Flight Crew Type 500
Communication Breakdown; Situational Awareness; Training / Qualification; Confusion; Distraction
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural FAR; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Flight Crew Diverted
Company Policy; Human Factors; Procedure; Weather
We were dispatched to our destination in Spain with VMC forecast for arrival. The company provided NOTAMs that all approaches were out of service. During the cruise portion the weather went below VMC and we asked what they wanted us to do. They told us an ASR approach would be available. Upon descent the Dispatcher informed us that no ASR was available. We held then diverted to a nearby military field and eventually timed out. The Captain looked up the military NOTAMs [while there] and found that the ASR was NOTAM'd out from [the middle of the previous month to the end of this month]. The company Dispatcher failed to give us that information in our paper work.
Why was I told that an ASR was available; in light of such a NOTAM? Why weren't the FOM procedures for Dispatch to an airfield without instrument approach available used? It was clear the Spanish controllers were confused by our intentions and inability to fly an approach. This event certainly disrupted service and caused confusion for the crew as the SATCOM failed once we arrived.
An MD11 crew dispatched to a forecast VMC European airport for which all approaches were OTS had to to divert to a nearby military field when low ceilings emerged and the promised radar directed approach proved to be fictitious.