That “D&D” unit spent over 2 hours between being notified, as per SOP, by a FISO that a Pa28 had disappeared, (20 minutes after crash) and notifying search and rescue unit, who located the wreckage in another 20 minutes.
Refer to May 2018 AAIB bulletin.
The UK does not provide alerting service for overdue aircraft so there is no point in closing flight plans. This is listed as a deviation from ICAO standards in AIP-UK.
It’s incredibly silly. There’s a dedicated D&D unit that seems to be a bit idle for most of the day, so un-closed and overdue flights plans may as well be routed there for further investigation.
Airborne_Again wrote:
The UK does not provide alerting service for overdue aircraft so there is no point in closing flight plans. This is listed as a deviation from ICAO standards in AIP-UK.
Maybe this has been explained before, but how can a country officially decine such a safety requirement ?
I guess ICAO can’t give a fine to the UK but isn’t it some kind of legal responsibility issue ?
Is it also the case for IFR FPLs ?
Peter wrote:
I did wonder why they didn’t phone me first. My number is always in the FP.
Peter,
Only fields thru 18 are transmitted in the FPL request. Field 19 data is generally on request only. So it depends where the phone number is placed. If it is included in the remarks, it is part of the FPL.
I did wonder why they didn’t phone me first. My number is always in the FP.
Peter wrote:
not closing my FP in [insert your favourite country but you can start with one really quite near the UK] and getting a €1000 bill for the S&R if there is nobody in the tower (or the fire station) who S&R could phone initially…
Peter wrote:
f you have AFTN access, or somebody on the ground has, they can do it for you, by transmitting a DEP message. If you have a UK address you can get access to the AFPEX tool and that can do it. In principle you could do it airborne, over 4G or a satellite phone, but AFPEX needs a java-capable computer which in practical terms means a windows tablet.
Aveling wrote:
I wonder if the ‘supplementary information’ part of the FPL , including the vital cellphone number, is transmitted by online systems? It certainly wasn’t in the early days of electronic filing through DUATS, leading to an embarrassing conversation with Flight Service where I had to dictate my cell number over the air (which I wasn’t keen on) “In case I forgot to close”. As if! So I went back to telephone filing.
It is not supposed to be transmitted but be available on request for SAR purposes. So if FF, SD etc. does this properly, they will accept requests for supplementary information on whatever AFTN address they use to transmit the flight plan.
alioth wrote:
You can do the same with Skydemon for VFR flight plans
Really? Please share how as I’ve never found this feature – only filing, delaying and closing.
NCYankee wrote:
In the US, Flightplans filed via ForeFlight can be opened and closed via ForeFlight.
You can do the same with Skydemon for VFR flight plans. I’d have to imagine the European version of FF will also be able to do it.
