Narrative:

I took sectors 4/15 and 16. During the briefing; the previous controller mentioned that he had taken a transfer from russia on a B777 at orvit and that eventually I would need to ensure the automated transfer with edmonton. The aircraft was not estimated to enter our airspace at orvit for almost another hour and a half. Later we combined all north area sectors and I took 3/9 and 13 along with mine. The B777 sent me a cpdlc message saying that he was not able to contact gander radio to make position reports and had been trying for about 20 minutes. He reported his position to me as 150W. I immediately thought that he had confused 150W and 150E because he wasn't even estimated to be at orvit (169W) for anther 10 to 15 minutes. I asked him to verify this and again he reported 150W. Now I was a bit concerned so I gave a heads up call to edmonton; indicating I wasn't sure yet; but I may have a transfer coming to them at 141W in about 20 minutes. By LOA; transfers will be made at least 30 minutes in advance; thus the deviation. Meanwhile a second controller came in to help and asked the B777; via cpdlc; for his estimate of orvit; to make certain of no confusion in the longitude; to which the B777 indeed reported that he had crossed orvit and was now at 150W and gave us the estimate for 140W. Now we definitely had a correct time for him; recalled edmonton; progressed the flight plan and all was completed about 15 minutes before entering edmonton airspace. I coordinated with gander radio as to their frequencies; they gave me three different HF frequencies for the B777 to try; all to no avail. I instructed the B777 to just make further position reports via cpdlc with edmonton. Somewhere along the line a 30 minute error occurred. When time errors occur they are usually 10 minutes or 1 hour; not 30 minutes. So I don't know if it the previous controller heard wrong; accents can be challenging; but I highly doubt it; 5 and 2 sound nothing alike. I think that russia just gave us a bad time and that because of the radio problems we have over the arctic; it was compounded because he had such trouble getting a hold of anyone. He even called on the sat phone after all this confusion to make sure it had all been straightened out and to find out if there was anything else he could or should do for communication. Recommendation; cpdlc works fantastic up here in alaska; there are huge expanses and one goes into and out of radio frequency coverage (even HF) all the time. I would like to see a NOTAM that aircraft shall log on cpdlc while in alaska airspace if they have that ability; which would help.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: ZAN Controller described a late coordination event with Edmonton Center; allegedly resulting from inaccurate Russian ATC information; the reporter recommending increased use of CPDLC for aircraft position reporting.

Narrative: I took Sectors 4/15 and 16. During the briefing; the previous controller mentioned that he had taken a transfer from Russia on a B777 at ORVIT and that eventually I would need to ensure the automated transfer with Edmonton. The aircraft was not estimated to enter our airspace at ORVIT for almost another hour and a half. Later we combined all North Area Sectors and I took 3/9 and 13 along with mine. The B777 sent me a CPDLC message saying that he was not able to contact Gander Radio to make position reports and had been trying for about 20 minutes. He reported his position to me as 150W. I immediately thought that he had confused 150W and 150E because he wasn't even estimated to be at ORVIT (169W) for anther 10 to 15 minutes. I asked him to verify this and again he reported 150W. Now I was a bit concerned so I gave a heads up call to Edmonton; indicating I wasn't sure yet; but I may have a transfer coming to them at 141W in about 20 minutes. By LOA; transfers will be made at least 30 minutes in advance; thus the deviation. Meanwhile a second controller came in to help and asked the B777; via CPDLC; for his estimate of ORVIT; to make certain of no confusion in the longitude; to which the B777 indeed reported that he had crossed ORVIT and was now at 150W and gave us the estimate for 140W. Now we definitely had a correct time for him; recalled Edmonton; progressed the flight plan and all was completed about 15 minutes before entering Edmonton airspace. I coordinated with Gander Radio as to their frequencies; they gave me three different HF frequencies for the B777 to try; all to no avail. I instructed the B777 to just make further position reports via CPDLC with Edmonton. Somewhere along the line a 30 minute error occurred. When time errors occur they are usually 10 minutes or 1 hour; not 30 minutes. So I don't know if it the previous controller heard wrong; accents can be challenging; but I highly doubt it; 5 and 2 sound nothing alike. I think that Russia just gave us a bad time and that because of the radio problems we have over the Arctic; it was compounded because he had such trouble getting a hold of anyone. He even called on the SAT phone after all this confusion to make sure it had all been straightened out and to find out if there was anything else he could or should do for communication. Recommendation; CPDLC works fantastic up here in Alaska; there are huge expanses and one goes into and out of radio frequency coverage (even HF) all the time. I would like to see a NOTAM that aircraft shall log on CPDLC while in Alaska airspace if they have that ability; which would 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.