Narrative:

Snow events in progress in canada and aleutian chain. I was unable to gain snotam or field condition reports for cyod; cyzf; pakn; pacd; pasy and padk via company weather products during preflight or enroute; all of which are potential diversion airports for our route. I had checked them from home and contaminated runways were apparent or should be expected due to snowfall. One dispatcher was overheard enroute on satcom complaining about why I did not obtain them on the ground when dispatch had failed to provide them to the crew as part of the preflight planning process. The response to ACARS field condition requests said 'no field conditions' which was untrue.cyzf later found to be unusable due to compacted ice and snow on 70% of the runway. Aleutian chain airports in some cases also had slick surfaces. Station pasy failed to provide runway conditions during snow events but is listed in the fom as a primary diversion airport. USA and canadian airport runway condition reporting to the crew and dispatchers is poor. Russian station reporting is excellent.a heavy aircraft recently had an enroute cockpit fire. Fortunately; it was close to landing in vhhh. What if this fire was 100 NM from cyzf and we had no idea whether the plane could be stopped on the runway in cyzf? Company computers; our weather briefings and ACARS requests say 'no field conditions' when ice and snow are on the runway. In rjaa I obtained the cyzf runway 15-33 conditions as 70% compacted snow and ice; likely making it unable to contain the plane.please advise when we will receive runway conditions that seem to be required for these routes. We do not want to damage an aircraft or hurt someone with a runway overrun; or sit for hours worrying about diversions to airports with runways unable to contain the plane. These planes are old and full of defects. We need better weather tools for contingency planning; especially where we experience NORDO in northern latitudes and cannot obtain outside help.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A B747-400 Captain reported that necessary field condition reports for contingency airports in North Pacific and Polar operations were unavailable from any company resource accessible by flight crews either in flight planning facilities or enroute.

Narrative: Snow events in progress in Canada and Aleutian Chain. I was unable to gain SNOTAM or field condition reports for CYOD; CYZF; PAKN; PACD; PASY and PADK via company weather products during preflight or enroute; all of which are potential diversion airports for our route. I had checked them from home and contaminated runways were apparent or should be expected due to snowfall. One Dispatcher was overheard enroute on SATCOM complaining about why I did not obtain them on the ground when Dispatch had failed to provide them to the crew as part of the preflight planning process. The response to ACARS FIELD CONDITION requests said 'NO FIELD CONDITIONS' which was untrue.CYZF later found to be unusable due to compacted ice and snow on 70% of the runway. Aleutian Chain airports in some cases also had slick surfaces. Station PASY failed to provide runway conditions during snow events but is listed in the FOM as a primary diversion airport. USA and Canadian airport runway condition reporting to the crew and dispatchers is poor. Russian station reporting is excellent.A heavy aircraft recently had an enroute cockpit fire. Fortunately; it was close to landing in VHHH. What if this fire was 100 NM from CYZF and we had no idea whether the plane could be stopped on the runway in CYZF? Company computers; our weather briefings and ACARS requests say 'NO FIELD CONDITIONS' when ice and snow are on the runway. In RJAA I obtained the CYZF Runway 15-33 conditions as 70% compacted snow and ice; likely making it unable to contain the plane.Please advise when we will receive runway conditions that seem to be required for these routes. We do not want to damage an aircraft or hurt someone with a runway overrun; or sit for hours worrying about diversions to airports with runways unable to contain the plane. These planes are old and full of defects. We need better weather tools for contingency planning; especially where we experience NORDO in northern latitudes and cannot obtain outside help.

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.