Dispatch Dispatcher
Communication Breakdown; Human-Machine Interface; Time Pressure; Workload
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural FAR; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Ground Event / Encounter Ground Equipment Issue
General Flight Cancelled / Delayed
ATC Equipment / Nav Facility / Buildings; Company Policy; Equipment / Tooling; Procedure; Software and Automation; Weather
At start of shift; we were informed that NOTAMs had not been available since approximately XA:00z due to damage to the FAA servers.  Several messages sent by [the] domestic manager to get NOTAMs by calling Airport Operations at our airports to obtain NOTAM information.  However; this wouldn't work with many international airports due to language barrier (later resolved when international NOTAM access was restored;) and even with domestic airports; the information is only good until the phone call would be terminated because without new NOTAMs coming in; we would have no way of knowing if a new NOTAM was added later.  Additionally; Center; FIR and FDC NOTAMs were not being updated either; so that information also not available as required by FAR and FOM.Consequently; I elected not to release any of my flights until the NOTAM system came back up.  I attempted to have the flights all prepped so they could be sent immediately when the NOTAM system started coming back; but I fell behind even doing that; and all 13 flights on my desk released late and took the associated delays.  Contributing to the late releases were thunderstorms approaching ZZZ during the inbound and having to focus my attention on those rather than getting flight plans prepped.  My purpose with this report is to both self-disclose the fact that I sent releases later than specified by the manual but also to raise concerns about management's solution to 'mitigate' the NOTAM issue.  The manual is clear about our requirement to check ALL NOTAMs; and merely calling airport operations does not ensure that all NOTAMs are received.  Some NOTAMS; like runway closures; taxiway closures; approach light outages; etc; may come from Airport Operations; but others may be issued by the FAA NOTAM office (FDC NOTAMs;) others are issued by the ATC centers.  It's simply unrealistic and imposes too much of a workload on both international and domestic dispatchers to be expected to call dozens of airports (9 alone on one of my ETOPS flights;) along with multiple centers to try and get NOTAM information while also dealing with thunderstorms and all of our other flight following duties.It seemed very much that the overriding concern was getting releases out regardless of whether it was legal or prudent to do so. Apparently; the FAA puts the NOTAM servers on the top floor of one of their building.  When thunderstorms moved through; the roof leaked and allowed water to soak all of the servers. Better server placement by the FAA would be a good start along with a robust backup system in a completely different location along with the necessary programming and bandwidth so that failing over to the backup system is a near-instant process rather than requiring hours.
A Dispatcher reported NOTAMs were not available due to equipment outage so they could not release flights. The reporter stated the dispatchers were told by Supervisors to contact airports operations to get NOTAMs but this was not sufficient and in violation of company procedures.