"Air Afrique"? That might be an insult to Air Afrique. Well, when it comes to the non-system of flight dispatch that is not required by Jar-Ops, yes. There is no requirement for aircraft dispatcher training, no certification, no communication system, no flight monitoring, no joint responsibility. In fact, the Chinese have a significantly better flight dispatch system than is required by Europe's Jar-Ops.(Which is basically nothing).
And here are some incidents/accidents. In all of them flights either ran directly into severe weather situations or continued with a degraded aircraft. These are the types of things that a structured system with aircraft dispatcher training, certification, communications, flight monitoring and joint responsibility can and do prevent.
Maersk Air Boeing B737, from Birmingham, UK, to Copenhagen, Denmark, December 1999, encountered severe weather, had outdated weather information, destination and alternates closed; diverted with a fuel emergency, landing in Billund, Denmark with 70 knot winds. If it had had to make another go around, it likely would have run out of fuel.
Hapag Lloyd Airbus A310, from Crete to Hannover, Germany, July 2000, experienced aircraft system failure (landing gear unable to retract), flight continued, misjudgment by crew bypassing a number of suitable airports, using incorrect fuel consumption data, resulting in fuel exhaustion as it was attempting to land at Vienna. The aircraft crashed and was destroyed. The Captain was prosecuted criminally.
Swiss International SAAB 2000 from Basel, Switzerland to Hamburg, Germany July 2002, encountered severe weather, destination and alternates closed, fuel exhaustion, attempted landing at a closed airport at night at Werneuchen, near Berlin. Aircraft destroyed. The aircraft was vectored directly into the severe weather by ATC.
BMI Airbus A321, Over Germany, May, 2003, encountered severe weather/ hail, serious damage, aircraft continued for hundreds of kilometers to Manchester, England before landing in spite of numerous suitable airports along the route. The crew had turned off the weather radar prior to hitting the hailstorm.
Easyjet Boeing B737 Geneva, Switzerland, August, 2003, encountered severe weather/hail, serious damage. Returned to Geneva with severe damage.
SAS Airbus A330, from Chicago, OHare, USA to Stockholm- Arlanda, Sweden, October, 2003, continued with no holding fuel into low visibility/missed approach at destination; insufficient fuel for a legal alternate; diverted to Helsinki with a fuel emergency. The crew did not monitor the fuel consumption or the destination and alternate weather while enroute.
Please note. This is not a criticism of those working in ops in Europe. It is a criticism of a fundamental weakness in Jar-Ops. The crews are very professional, of course. (But they are not perfect). And the flight planners are also very good.(But they are not perfect either). But, it is a proven fact that certification and training for aircraft dispatchers does increase knowledge and skills, that communications does provide the best and latest safety critical information to the flight crews in flight, and joint responsibility recognizes that flight crews and aircraft dispatchers are not perfect, that both can and do make mistakes, which can be prevented as each checks the other. It has been shown to work, time after time. The flight crews deserve to have the best possible information at all times, not just before the flight, but through the course of the flight until it terminates, and everybody involved should be making the best possible operational decisions, with all available resources. Until something is done it will remain a problem in Jar-Ops.