Originally Posted by
SEGATAKI
In no way am I saying that you violate a filed clearance, but clearly if you have the required fuel on board to reach your destination, you have the right to exercise your captain's authority to continue your flight to your re-dispatched destination or your cleared destination. It is the job of both captain and the dispatcher to ensure that a re-release is obtained in order to continue the flight. Thus the reason for obtaining your clearance 2 hours prior to your re-dispatch point. If in the span of two hours you can not contact a dispatcher something is a little amiss!
Apparently you did not read my previous post. We had 3 experienced intl pilots on board plus a check airman. I've been flying intl for 35 years, and EVERY available means to contact the dispatcher was used to no avail.
Something was amiss alright - the company's refusal to put satcomm on all of our aircraft a long time ago.
I may have the "right" to use my emergency authority anytime, but in my opinion the packages not arriving at their intended destination is NOT an emergency, and would not be viewed as such by the FAA or ICAO authorities. Exactly what do you consider the emergency to be in this situation? GMAFB.
It sounds like you were one of those company drones who believed it was just fine for us to fly around for so many years without TCAS in our airplanes as well.