After declaring an emergency due to a failed antiskid system; an ATR-72 Captain is distressed by his inability to contact company Dispatch and Maintenance.

Date: 2010-07 · Aircraft: ATR 72 · Phase: approach

Anomalies: aircraft-equipment-problem-less-severe|deviation-discrepancy-procedural-published-material-policy|inflight-event-encounter-other-unknown

Synopsis

After declaring an emergency due to a failed antiskid system; an ATR-72 Captain is distressed by his inability to contact company Dispatch and Maintenance.

Narrative

Upon gear extension on approach we received a # 2 antiskid fault. We abandoned our visual approach and ran the antiskid fault checklist. Found the airport to have adequate runway length and decided that a landing would be safe. [We] tried to contact Dispatch multiple times over with no answer. [We] also sent an ACARS message with no answer. We declared an emergency and had CFR standing by in case of any braking degradation or any other complications with the brakes/gear. We also contacted Local Operations to see if they could patch Dispatch thru. It took approximately 10 minutes before Dispatch contacted us. The approach and landing were normal with no noted abnormalities with the brake system on roll out. We taxied clear of the runway and to the gate. CFR met us at the gate and confirmed no visual abnormalities with the left main gear. We entered the item into the aircraft's logbook.The mechanical malfunction was certainly the center of the situation but it was compounded by the fact that we were unable to contact Dispatch/Maintenance Control by radio or ACARS. It took approximately 10 minutes before Dispatch contacted us. In a situation where we had declared an emergency; we certainly don't want to rush the situation; but being able to get a hold of Dispatch in a timely manner is important. It is extremely frustrating to have a situation where Dispatch needs to be in the loop but after everything you have tried it is seemingly impossible to actually make positive contact with Dispatch.

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