Query about flight plan alert incident

[LH2]

I had an incident the other day where my VFR flight plan went on distress phase due to overdue arrival, when I was in fact diverting back to departure point and in contact with ATC all the time, and I would like to know what your thoughts are regarding this situation. The story is as follows:

I departed on a bugsmasher from an uncontrolled aerodrome (RDO) en route to another uncontrolled aerodrome (A/A) about an hour away. A flight plan was filed as a matter of procedure (I always do them) and because I was going to be flying in class D airspace for most of the way. ATC "A" is responsible for flight plans involving both aerodromes, and ATC "B" is responsible for the airspace over the destination field.

So I take off, sign off from the local RDO service, sign in to "A" APP, pass my details, request FIS, get a squawk and climb instructions, and shortly after I'm transferred to "B" APP, which controls the next zone. At about this point my transponder goes dead but I was allowed to remain in class D, giving frequent position reports until I'm overhead my destination 50 minutes after departure, at which point I sign off from "B" APP, sign into destination's A/A freq and commence descent. Because this place is in the mountains, once you start to descend you lose contact with everyone except this A/A and a military aerodrome nearby.

During the descent I assessed the wind conditions and found them unsuitable for a safe landing, so two low passes and 20 minutes latter I climbed up again, stated my intention to return to my point of departure on the A/A (nobody else seemed to be there), said goodbye and signed back in with "B" APP. I stated that I had been unable to land at destination due weather and was diverting back to origin, still on the original flight plan. I further requested FL85 but was told to remain at "VFR altitude" as my transponder was inop. Eventually I figured out that "VFR altitude" meant "outside CAS", so I descended to FL75 (high terrain here), 500ft below class D.

A few miles latter, as the class D sector went down from FL80 to 4500ft MSL and then to 2000ft MSL, I started to descend so before losing two-way comms I sent a last transmission to "B" APP, requesting to close my flight plan as I would be proceeding outside CAS. The controller asked me to repeat--not sure if the transmission was unclear or it was due to the controller's limited English skills. In any event, I repeated my request for the flight plan to be closed, or alternatively, to be transferred to "A" APP as I would be losing radio contact. I did not hear anything back from this controller, presumably because of terrain blocking the RF, so five minutes latter I checked in with "A" APP, stated position, the fact that I was on a flight plan from dep to dest, returning to dep on the original flight plan, and below CAS due transponder failure (which didn't stop the controller from offering a squawk :rolleyes:). He advised to call when field in sight, which I did five minutes latter, got transferred to the aerodrome's radio service, and landed 1:48 minutes after departure.

Then, to my surprise, when I walked into the office the lady there tells me the guys from the other aerodrome have been calling and to remind me to close the flight plan next time :confused: This confused me a bit, as I didn't even know there was someone at the destination responsible for looking after the field (it's pretty much abandoned, except for a gliding club).

Anyway, so I rang this gentleman, who explained that "A" ATC (responsible for this aerodrome) had called when they noticed that my flight plan hadn't been closed. He went to the field to check if my plane was there but it wasn't, so they made a few calls (I wasn't carrying a phone myself) and eventually they got hold of a friend of mine who told them she thought I was intending to meet up with a guy from the military airfield next door (and next country), so apparently somehow they assumed I had landed there. They had the telephone number of the person I was going to meet on the flight plan, but I'm not sure whether they rang him up or if he was available at the time. This person was on the airfield at the time and heard me doing the low passes, but thought it might have been someone else. He was not listening on the frequency.

After talking to him, I also rang "A" Operations, who seemed to assume I had landed at the military field (which wasn't even one of my alternates). I told them I hadn't in fact landed anywhere but I had turned back and didn't ATC tell them (or didn't they ask), and the answer came in the negative. They mumbled something about their tower should have told them I was on the way back and apologised for the confusion.

So, if by now I haven't sent you all to sleep with the boring details, what do you make of this? Is it really possible that the responsible ATC would be unaware of the fact that my flight plan had triggered an alert? Wouldn't they (I assume not) have ammended my flight plan after I stated my intention not to land at destination and would this not have been seen by the operations centre?

In short, I would be appreciative if you could offer any insights into this, which would help me to have a better picture of the situation.

My intention is to report this to the relevant CAA as, in my present understanding, there seems to have been a serious communication failure in the ATS which could have resulted in either a lack of assistance in case of distress (they seemed to assume I was safely on the ground and just forgot to close the FPL), or in a SAR sortie which would have put those resources at unnecessary risk.

[eyeinthesky]

It seems to me that you did everything you could to advise ATC of your intentions. However, in the UK at least, ATC cannot close a flight plan for you whilst you are still airborne (which is what you asked "B" APP to do). This is logical if you think about it, since it would be a pity if you were to close your flight plan 3 miles from your private strip, only to end up in the hedge and no-one would come looking for you.

Sounds like one of those unfortunate breakdowns in communication, although I do hear that the French are particularly zealous in pursuing open flight plans.

[BackPacker]

Interesting story and I'd like to know what really happened and should have happened. But here's my take on it.

Somewhere along the line your flight plan was opened with the actual time of departure. There's an EET somewhere in the plan, this gets added to the ATD giving the ETA. You can revise this ETA in-flight if you wish but in any case you have to close the flightplan, usually by telephone, within 30 minutes after your ETA, otherwise overdue action is initiated. That is, if you land at an uncontrolled field. For controlled fields, the tower will close the plan for you.

In your case, the plan was left open when you signed off with "B", and it basically contained your ETA. Since it took you 20 minutes assessing the situation and then a few minutes to climb again, sign off with A/A and contact B again, it might well have been half an hour past your ETA and overdue action might have been initiated. But in any case, "B" should have picked up on it and changed your plan (with the new ETA) as soon as they learned that you diverted. And even if B was not the unit initiating the overdue action, I guess the people who did initiate the overdue action would keep an eye on your flightplan to see if you called in to close it from somewhere, or an ATC unit would amend it somehow based on your requests.

Anyway, I'm just speculating here. It would be worth making a few phonecalls to A and B to see how your plan was really handled, who initiated the overdue action and at what point, based on what information, the overdue action was cancelled etc. etc.

And there's another thing. As part of the overdue action, the first thing they do is phone around with the question "have you seen thisandthis plane?" Obviously the answer is not just "no" but it also makes people draw conclusions, the most obvious one will be "oh no, another $%^&* who forgot to close his plan" and the slightly less obvious "oh no, someone's crashed". The lady who told you off might as well have done that on her own authority, not knowing the whole story. Same applies for the guys from the other fields. While in fact it looks like you handled things correctly and the people who originally initiated the overdue action knew where you were, what happened and cancelled the further overdue action as a matter of course.

Same as in real life. In a large crowd (let's say a party or something), tell half a dozen people you are looking for someone, within minutes everybody knows you're looking, will tell him/her and you meet. But the person you were looking for needs to endure additional hours of "XXX is looking for you". Once a call along the lines of "we're looking for xxx" has gone out, it is really hard, impossible even, to cancel it with everybody it might have reached.

[LH2]

Hi there

in the UK at least, ATC cannot close a flight plan for you whilst you are still airborne

they can where this incident occurred. I am aware of the implications and this is the first time I ask for my flight plan to be closed while still in flight (Ok, unless I simultaneously activate a second FPL). The reasoning behind my decision was that once going low level and perhaps out of radio reach, there was a possibility they would try to contact me and be alarmed by the lack of a reply (remember at this point I had no squawk either). I balanced the likelihood of this scenario against that of me crashing and decided the former was more likely.

Sounds like one of those unfortunate breakdowns in communication

Sounds like one of those sistematic breakdowns in communications in this corner of the woods, which is what makes me concerned.

I do hear that the French are particularly zealous in pursuing open flight plans

My experience with French ATS has always been highly positive. They are very capable, proactive, and treat everyone with the same concern and professionalism, regardless of whether you are a B747 or a PPL on a spamcan.

As you can guess, this incident did not occur in France.

Since it took you 20 minutes assessing the situation and then a few minutes to climb again, sign off with A/A and contact B again, it might well have been half an hour past your ETA and overdue action might have been initiated

Nope. While I do not know at which exact time they sent the alert, that would have been after I regained radio contact with "B". The reasons for this are: a) I signed back in with "B" 1:10 minutes after ATD on an EET of 1:00 (or was it 1:05? can't remember), and b) they chap from the destination field told me he'd heard me doing the low passes but didn't think that could have been me when he was called by "A" concerning my flight plan latter on.

And there's another thing. As part of the overdue action, the first thing they do is phone around with the question "have you seen thisandthis plane?" Obviously the answer is not just "no" but it also makes people draw conclusions, the most obvious one will be "oh no, another $%^&* who forgot to close his plan"

Yep, that's exactly what happened :) Still, it is the responsibility of the ATC authorities to follow up according to procedures. In this case, it was the left to the bloke at that little airfield to call up everyone (origin aerodrome, friends, neighbouring strip) and to figure out what might have happened. It is my present understanding that he reported back to ATS saying that he hadn't found me and that I probably had landed at the military airfield and taken off on a different aircraft. If my understanding as described is correct, why ATS chose to rely on speculation (I probably was somewhere else) rather than fact (I hadn't been seen at the field) is beyond me. More importantly, why weren't the controllers aware that I was unaccounted for by operations?

In any case, tomorrow I'll finally have a bit of free time so I'll go and report this to the local CAA, see what they say.