One of ADF's membership recently saved for us, a portion of the communications he exchanged with a flight he was working inbound to Houston. We have removed the identity of the dispatcher and the airline since neither are relevant to the story as it unfolds below. We felt that this scenario would be interesting to visitors as it captures very well, the spirit of cooperation and joint responsibility that exists in the environment we operate in. Although the flight involved in the scenario below diverted to an alternate airport and was greXXXy delayed in reaching its final destination, it ultimately did so safely. At no point was there any danger to the passengers on board, thanks in large part to the work of the dispatcher and PIC in spite of intense thunderstorm activity in the Houston area.
Communications below are color coded.
The purple text are advisory teletype messages, either computer generated by the aircraft or entered manually by the dispatcher. Thought you'd enjoy this. Wednesday evening, January 21, there was some heavy thunderstorm activity in the Houston area. Additionally, Houston Intercontinental had a runway closed and traffic was backing up. Some crews are not real conversant in this format since the First Officer has to type single finger with his left hand.