No Aircraft
Dispatch Dispatcher
Situational Awareness; Communication Breakdown; Workload
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural FAR; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Company Policy
Our Dispatcher phone system is shut down during every shift turnover and can take minutes to restart after sign-in. I have heard from a director that this is OK because any calls will ring on another desk. This morning at least two Dispatch desks in the Atlantic area were signing the relieved dispatcher out and signing themselves in to the computer at the same time. Where would those calls have gone? If the Dispatcher on whose phone those calls rang was busy doing their own work what then? Are they expected to immediately put their own call on hold to answer someone else's line? How do they know that it is a roll-over call? What if it was an emergency?  I do not understand how our management can stand by their claim that shutting down a phone system used for operational control every time a computer has to be rebooted and at every shift turnover is not a serious compromise of safety. The safety risks are greater during irregular operations such as thunderstorm or winter storm events when we have an abundance of radio and telephone calls. What if there was another event on the order of 9/11?
A Dispatcher expressed concern over the repeated breakdowns in communications with flights under his control due to shift changes and computer rebooting requirements.