A Dispatcher added an addition 1;000 pounds of fuel over the computer flight plan model contrary to company policy. At the planned destination the aircraft executed a go-around for weather and landed at its alternate below reserve fuel.

2010-07 · NASA ASRS report 899862

Date: 2010-07 · Aircraft: B737-800 · Phase: descent

Anomalies: deviation-discrepancy-procedural-far|deviation-discrepancy-procedural-published-material-policy|inflight-event-encounter-fuel-issue|inflight-event-encounter-weather-turbulence

Synopsis

A Dispatcher added an addition 1;000 pounds of fuel over the computer flight plan model contrary to company policy. At the planned destination the aircraft executed a go-around for weather and landed at its alternate below reserve fuel.

Narrative

Flight diverted to CLT after going missed-approach due to thunderstorm activity at the originally planned airport. I was watching the flight on radar and saw that it was receiving radar vectors from Approach; but it was never put into holding. After executing a missed approach it flew directly to CLT and landed. My concern is that the flight burned into its reserve fuel getting to its first; and closest; alternate. I should also point out that I first released this flight with company hold fuel and then went back and added two alternates because I did not like what I was seeing on the radar west of our origionally planned airport. The forecast weather was still calling for 'alternate none' conditions. I also added 1;000 LBS of Dispatcher add fuel on the first release. Where; and with how much fuel; would this flight have landed with if I had not added the 1;000 LBS of dispatch added fuel; and gone against fuel policy; and added two alternates? If the crew would have attempted the same approach; without the 1;000 LBS of Dispatcher added fuel; and then diverted to CLT his arrival fuel would have been under 2;500 LBS! To me this shows that the company policy of 12 minutes of hold fuel; when thunderstorm activity is present or forecasted; is not a safe amount of fuel. I also noticed the reserve fuel for this flight was 3;552 LBS; yet the reserve fuel for the leg from CLT to our original destination was 4;146 LBS even though the aircraft weighted 3;000 LBS less. I am really concerned that we have reduced our alternate hold fuels to a level that does not reflect real world conditions and it needs to be addressed. Change alternate required hold fuel policy so that it differentiates between IFR weather; i.e.; low ceilings; and convective activity. Increase holding fuel when convective activity is observed or forecasted.

Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.

Loading the flight search…

Frequently asked questions

How do I search flights by aircraft type on FlightFinder?

Pick an aircraft model — Boeing 737, Airbus A320, A380, Boeing 787 Dreamliner and more — enter your origin airport, and FlightFinder shows every route that plane flies from there with live fares.

Which aircraft types can I filter by?

We support Boeing 737/747/757/767/777/787, the full Airbus A220/A319/A320/A321/A330/A340/A350/A380 family, Embraer E170/E175/E190/E195, Bombardier CRJ and Dash 8, and the ATR 42/72 turboprops.

Is FlightFinder free to use?

Search and schedules are free. Pro ($4.99/month, $39/year, or $99 one-time lifetime) unlocks the enriched flight card — on-time stats, CO₂ per passenger, amenities, live gate & weather — plus My Trips with push alerts.

Where does the route data come from?

Live schedules come from Amadeus, AeroDataBox and Travelpayouts. Observed routes (which aircraft actually flew a given city pair) are crowdsourced from adsb.lol ADS-B data under the Open Database License.