Narrative:

Received two duats briefs for a flight (two legs with a fuel stop at H19). Briefings received for flight departing at XA00Z and arriving H19 at XD30Z. On arrival at H19 discovered the entire airfield was completely glazed over in thick ice. Diverted to alternate airport uin only to discover that airport also completely glazed over in thick ice. ATC was unaware of any of the field closures and made recommendation to divert to irk that I later confirmed was also glazed over and closed. Another pilot on frequency noted that spi had one runway open. Flight concluded safely with landing at spi. Flight would not have concluded safely due to fuel starvation had the flight continued on to irk only to find that airfield and all others in the area were similarly closed due to ice.review of the duats briefings confirmed that there were no NOTAMS for either H19 or uin indicating the runways or airports were closed. In fact very few of the airports within about 100 nm of H19 had any notams indicating runways or airfields were closed. One exception was mby that just noted the field closed but offering no reason for the closure. The widespread storm that was responsible had come through the previous [2 days]. So it was at least 48 hours later and still no indication in the 'official' duats briefings of any of the hazardous conditions over a widespread area. Even kansas city center was unaware of the extent of the problem offering vectors to an airfield whose condition was unsafe.the 'official' duats briefing is supposed to provide the pilot with all the information necessary to make safety of flight decisions. However in this case; duats and the FAA NOTAM system were sorely lacking in communicating the hazardous conditions; widespread area; or even providing timely information. The safe outcome of this flight was put at unnecessary risk as a direct result.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: BE58 pilot reported that no NOTAMs had been issued for several airports that were closed due to runway conditions. ATC was also unaware of the closures.

Narrative: Received two DUATS briefs for a flight (two legs with a fuel stop at H19). Briefings received for flight departing at XA00Z and arriving H19 at XD30Z. On arrival at H19 discovered the entire airfield was completely glazed over in thick ice. Diverted to alternate airport UIN only to discover that airport also completely glazed over in thick ice. ATC was unaware of any of the field closures and made recommendation to divert to IRK that I later confirmed was also glazed over and closed. Another pilot on frequency noted that SPI had one runway open. Flight concluded safely with landing at SPI. Flight would not have concluded safely due to fuel starvation had the flight continued on to IRK only to find that airfield and all others in the area were similarly closed due to ice.Review of the DUATS briefings confirmed that there were no NOTAMS for either H19 or UIN indicating the runways or airports were closed. In fact very few of the airports within about 100 nm of H19 had any NOTAMs indicating runways or airfields were closed. One exception was MBY that just noted the field closed but offering no reason for the closure. The widespread storm that was responsible had come through the previous [2 days]. So it was at least 48 hours later and still no indication in the 'official' DUATS briefings of any of the hazardous conditions over a widespread area. Even Kansas City Center was unaware of the extent of the problem offering vectors to an airfield whose condition was unsafe.The 'official' DUATS briefing is supposed to provide the pilot with all the information necessary to make safety of flight decisions. However in this case; DUATS and the FAA NOTAM system were sorely lacking in communicating the hazardous conditions; widespread area; or even providing timely information. The safe outcome of this flight was put at unnecessary risk as a direct result.

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.