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An air carrier captain expressed his displeasure at his company flight crew schedulers utilizing ACARS communications during critical phases of flight for non flight related purposes; i.e. Revising flight crew schedules.
| Attributes | |
| ACN | 1199366 |
| Time | |
| Date | 201408 |
| Aircraft 1 | |
| Make Model Name | Commercial Fixed Wing |
| Operating Under FAR Part | Part 121 |
| Flight Plan | IFR |
| Person 1 | |
| Function | Captain |
| Qualification | Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP) |
| Events | |
| Anomaly | Deviation - Procedural FAR Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy |
Narrative:
Dispatch sent us an ACARS [message] during sterile cockpit regarding a [flight crewmember] scheduling issue. The message was received [during our approach and landing; a mere eight minutes prior to our block arrival.]scheduling had already tried to contact me twice via cell phone/voicemail during a single round-trip and were too impatient to wait for me to call them when I returned to base; which is already [contractually] required. They even changed my schedule multiple times during the round-trip; so if I had picked up the first time and been notified; they still would have had to contact me again. They shouldn't be contacting me at all; since I'm required to contact them. Worse; they are now involving dispatchers with resources used for the operation of a safe flight during a high workload flight environment. This has been a repeated abuse and whatever punishment; if any; the company is receiving for misusing the ACARS is not enough to get them to stop.
Original NASA ASRS Text
Title: An Air Carrier Captain expressed his displeasure at his company flight crew schedulers utilizing ACARS communications during critical phases of flight for non flight related purposes; i.e. revising flight crew schedules.
Narrative: Dispatch sent us an ACARS [message] during sterile cockpit regarding a [flight crewmember] scheduling issue. The message was received [during our approach and landing; a mere eight minutes prior to our block arrival.]Scheduling had already tried to contact me twice via cell phone/voicemail during a single round-trip and were too impatient to wait for me to call them when I returned to base; which is already [contractually] required. They even changed my schedule multiple times during the round-trip; so if I had picked up the first time and been notified; they still would have had to contact me again. They shouldn't be contacting me at all; since I'm required to contact them. Worse; they are now involving dispatchers with resources used for the operation of a safe flight during a high workload flight environment. This has been a repeated abuse and whatever punishment; if any; the company is receiving for misusing the ACARS is not enough to get them to stop.
Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.