An international captain suggests modifying north atlantic ETOPS operations so that potential enrout...

Narrative:

Regarding ETOPS operations: due to the volcano in iceland converting a massive amount of heretofore useable airspace into; in essence; a no fly zone; it would seem incumbent to revisit and revise current ETOPS sops. A decompression scenario under current procedures could very well put the flight in jeopardy by flying direct to the ETOPS alternate. A revision that allows the crew to descend; then parallel the current route either forward or backward until a point where a direct route to the alternate could keep the flight outside of the ash contamination zone; is needed. Etp's would have to reflect this added time. This could also represent the potential to convert 138 ETOPS operations to 180 minute operations; or under worst case scenario; require the cancellation or delay of a flight.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An International Captain suggests modifying North Atlantic ETOPS operations so that potential enroute emergency diversions would have ETP's which avoid the volcanic ash no fly areas until a direct path to the diversion airport is reached.

Narrative: Regarding ETOPS operations: Due to the volcano in Iceland converting a massive amount of heretofore useable airspace into; in essence; a no fly zone; it would seem incumbent to revisit and revise current ETOPS SOPs. A decompression scenario under current procedures could very well put the flight in jeopardy by flying direct to the ETOPS alternate. A revision that allows the crew to descend; then parallel the current route either forward or backward until a point where a direct route to the alternate could keep the flight outside of the ash contamination zone; is needed. ETP's would have to reflect this added time. This could also represent the potential to convert 138 ETOPS Operations to 180 minute Operations; or under worst case scenario; require the cancellation or delay of a flight.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.

Attributes
ACN	888187
Time
Date	201005
Local Time Of Day	0001-0600
Place
Locale Reference	CZQX.ARTCC
State Reference	NF
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Night
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	B767 Undifferentiated or Other Model
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Cruise
Route In Use	Oceanic
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 240 Flight Crew Total 25000 Flight Crew Type 9000
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy

An international captain suggests modifying north atlantic ETOPS operations so that potential enroute emergency diversions would have etp's which avoid the volcanic ash no fly areas until a direct path to the diversion airport is reached.