Narrative:

I was planning on using segu as an alternate for skbo for this flight. While scanning the flight plan; I noticed the following for my alternate data:alternate data skbo - segu segu S02 09.5 W079 53.0 FL240 crz lrc wind P006SKBO.KAMIS1A.kamis.W16.gir.UA550.qit.UW9.temox.TEMOX1.seguthe FL240 stuck out to me because of the terrain in that area of south america. I felt FL240 was too low of an altitude and I started to look into it further. When I looked on the charts; I noticed that the airway used in the preferred route to the alternate; UA550; had an MEA of FL250; yet the flight plan was defaulting to FL240. I tried everything I knew to get the planned altitude above the MEA to something more reasonable like FL320 or FL340; but the computer would not allow it to happen. So; I asked the master [flight planning software technician] for help and he was very helpful in getting it fixed for me. When I came into work and saw the master the next week; he advised me the problem was fixed. Unfortunately; the same thing happened with the same flight. So the problem was not fixed. But; the same master advised me that FL240 was just the initial altitude and the actual altitude to the alternate was FL300. That did not make sense to me though because on the flight plan it just showed FL240 as the planned altitude to the alternate and there were no step climbs. However; in the analysis screen you can view the altitude profile to the alternate and it indeed showed the initial altitude of FL240 and then a step climb to FL300. The problem with that is the only thing the crews can see is FL240 to the alternate. The flight crew is unable to see any step climbs in the altitude profile for the route to the alternate. The alternate data needs to be fixed to show step climbs; if indeed there are step climbs for the route to the alternate. I was unaware there were ever step climbs built in to the alternate; as the alternate data on the flight plan only shows one altitude. If a crew had a lost comm issue and had to divert to the alternate; and they flew the flight planned route and altitude; they would be below the MEA on that route to segu from skbo.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Air carrier Dispatcher noted that the computer generated altitude for the alternate airport route was below the MEA. Further inspection revealed that a step climb was planned above the MEA but this information was not transmitted to the crew.

Narrative: I was planning on using SEGU as an alternate for SKBO for this flight. While scanning the flight plan; I noticed the following for my alternate data:ALTERNATE DATA SKBO - SEGU SEGU S02 09.5 W079 53.0 FL240 CRZ LRC WIND P006SKBO.KAMIS1A.KAMIS.W16.GIR.UA550.QIT.UW9.TEMOX.TEMOX1.SEGUThe FL240 stuck out to me because of the terrain in that area of South America. I felt FL240 was too low of an altitude and I started to look into it further. When I looked on the charts; I noticed that the airway used in the preferred route to the alternate; UA550; had an MEA of FL250; yet the flight plan was defaulting to FL240. I tried everything I knew to get the planned altitude above the MEA to something more reasonable like FL320 or FL340; but the computer would not allow it to happen. So; I asked the Master [flight planning software technician] for help and he was very helpful in getting it fixed for me. When I came into work and saw the Master the next week; he advised me the problem was fixed. Unfortunately; the same thing happened with the same flight. So the problem was not fixed. But; the same Master advised me that FL240 was just the initial altitude and the actual altitude to the alternate was FL300. That did not make sense to me though because on the flight plan it just showed FL240 as the planned altitude to the alternate and there were no step climbs. However; in the analysis screen you can view the altitude profile to the alternate and it indeed showed the initial altitude of FL240 and then a step climb to FL300. The problem with that is the only thing the crews can see is FL240 to the alternate. The flight crew is unable to see any step climbs in the altitude profile for the route to the alternate. The alternate data needs to be fixed to show step climbs; if indeed there are step climbs for the route to the alternate. I was unaware there were ever step climbs built in to the alternate; as the alternate data on the flight plan only shows one altitude. If a crew had a lost comm issue and had to divert to the alternate; and they flew the flight planned route and altitude; they would be below the MEA on that route to SEGU from SKBO.

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.