B747 Undifferentiated or Other Model
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 166; Flight Crew Total 14358; Flight Crew Type 7710
Troubleshooting; Communication Breakdown; Confusion
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural FAR; Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence
Flight Crew Diverted
Company Policy; Human Factors; Weather
IPAD FAILURESDISPATCH UNAWARE OF WINDSHEAR FAR117 EXCEEDANCEWe were on a flight when we diverted to ZZZ due to severe wind shear. The divert was complicated by the failure of all of our IPADs. We did not receive any warnings from Dispatch regarding adverse weather at our original destination. Our tasks were complicated by the failure of all of our iPads. After reviewing the flight times post flight; we believe that we may have exceeded our FAR 117 duty time.We discovered during preflight planning that 3 of our 4 iPads were not fully functional. We tried to update them according to the Airwatch update bulletin but that did not work. We also enlisted the help of [operations] but that was unsuccessful. We notified the [dispatcher] and he directed us to take a loaner iPad with us. All 5 iPads failed enroute; we believe due to the failed Airwatch update. We notified the Operations and Dispatch enroute of the failures. The IPADs began to function normally while on the ground in ZZZ but some failed again enroute to destination. We diverted and were told after landing to plan to fuel and immediately return to our original destination. I called Dispatch after block in to discuss the return. The dispatcher said that we would be fueling and returning immediately to our original destination. I told him that we did not want to depart until the weather improved there. He questioned my request and seemed to be completely oblivious to the severe wind shear occurring there and stated that there was no wind shear at our original destination and that the wind was 8 knots. I told him that we were looking at the ATIS and it was reporting SIG WS with rain and crosswinds of 20-35 knots. Several flights had diverted prior to our arrival due to wind shear. He stated that he was too busy to handle us. I asked him to contact us when he was available to dispatch us. He transferred us to the Dispatch and we worked through him to plan the flight. The dispatcher was unavailable to us.We asked several times about our FAR 117 legalities and for our Critical Crew Off (CCO) times to be sent via ACARS. I specifically stated to the Operations that we would only agree to a 30 minute extension. Operations stated several times that our CCO times could not be sent until we blocked out. This seemed unusual to us since we normally receive the CCO times prior to block out but we decided to rely on his expertise. We received a CCO time via ACARS after block out. We were off two minutes prior to that time. We reviewed our flight and duty times the next day and were surprised to see that we had 20:38 hours of duty time. We believe that; in retrospect; we should have not departed the divert airport due to a projected duty time exceedance.
[Report narrative contained no additional information.]
After diverting due to windshear during approach at their original destination; a B747 flight crew was unable to complete all required coordination and procedures in a timely manner prior to departing the divert airport back to their original destination. The crew was given an incorrect Critical Crew Off (CCO) time prior to departing the divert airport and subsequently exceeded their FAR 117 duty day limit.