The pre-dispatch gate, and what it stops
The final checks a flight passes before it is released, and why they run again at dispatch.
Last reviewed
A booking being valid when it was made is not the same as a flight being safe to release now. The pre-dispatch gate is the last check before an aircraft goes, and it runs against the state of the world at dispatch, not the state when someone booked it days ago.
What the gate re-checks
At dispatch, FlyerOS runs the eligibility checks again, so anything that changed since the booking is caught:
- A medical or rating that expired overnight now fails, even though it was valid when the flight was booked.
- A defect raised this morning that grounds or restricts the aircraft stops the dispatch.
- A maintenance item that has since fallen due is applied.
- Any duty position that has changed with the day's flying is re-evaluated.
Because the gate looks at now, it catches the things that a check made only at booking time would miss.
What the gate stops
The gate refuses to release a flight that should not go, and it says exactly why on the screen of the person trying to dispatch it. Nothing is released on the assumption that "it was fine when we booked it". The reason is specific, so the duty instructor can act rather than guess.
Closing the loop at the end
The gate has a partner at the other end of the flight. On close-out, the flight records a nil-defect declaration or the defect that was found, so the technical outcome of every flight is captured rather than assumed. A flight that lands without that declaration is surfaced as an exception on the tech-log page, so nothing is quietly left open. See Closing out a flight.