Wednesday UA863 & UA839 was quarantined on arrival, was giving gates 8 & 9 to unload. After unloading UA863 was taxied to its normal gate, UA839 departed to MEL.

It is radio based, not web based. Ie the plane transmits data messages to ground stations, the ground stations then send the data to the 'airline'. With a scanner, sound card and some simple software anyone within range can decode the messages.

Do search of ACARS for greater detail.

Thanks heaps Ash - appreciate your reply!

ACARS flu information is being transmitted by a number of aircraft now including V Australia, United and LAN.

ACARS mode: 2 Aircraft reg: .CC-CQF
Message label: 80 Block id: 6 Msg. no: M29A
Flight id: LA0801
Message content:-
/SYDOWLA SYDOSQF.3B01 OTHER 0801/01 NZAA/YSSY .CC-CQF
THERE IS NO INDICATION OF ILL TRAVELLER ON BOARD
-------------------------------------[02/05/2009 07:37]

and QF

ACARS mode: 2 Aircraft reg: .VH-OGG
Message label: 86 Block id: Msg. no: 4722
Flight id: QF0142
Message content:-
/SYD.
ARI
SYD ETAB 00:25
WH/CH 03 UN/MNR 00
THANK YOU WE HAVE NO ILLNESS ON BOARD ..
-------------------------------------[02/05/2009 09:47]

and Air New Zealand ...

ACARS mode: S Aircraft reg: .ZK-OKE
Message label: 8X Block id: 4 Msg. no: M07A
Flight id: NZ0119
Message content:-
RA INVALID QUSYDKOQF~1
HI
GATE 58
BAY 58
A-C OPS 118 AKL 1530
PLSE ADV ANY ILLNESS ON BOARD DUE SWINE FLU.
QARANTINE NEED TO ISSUE PRATIQUE.
THANKS, QANTAS SYDNEY

-------------------------------------[02/05/2009 13:20]

ACARS mode: S Aircraft reg: .ZK-OKE
Message label: 14 Block id: 9 Msg. no: M09A
Flight id: NZ0119
Message content:-
00AIR02NZAAYSSY041002--01--NNN
L1
L2
000000000000
NO CREW OR PAX SICKNESS
ONBOARD.R PEART 28676
CAT 8/168
-------------------------------------[02/05/2009 13:21]

And Air Vanuatu ...

ACARS mode: 2 Aircraft reg: .YJ-AV1
Message label: 86 Block id: 4 Msg. no: M51A
Flight id: NF0010
Message content:-
ARI
ETAB 0552YSSY
WHLCHR 00 /00MED
ASST 00MINORS 00PAX
SICK N
SI
HI NO SICKNESS ONBOARD DO U HAVE A GATE-ZFW
-------------------------------------[02/05/2009 15:06]

PRATIQUE - Pratique is the license given to a ship to enter port on assurance from the captain to convince the authorities that he/she is free from contagious disease.

every day learn something new!

Banjo

Pratique - a first for me to Andrew.

Not a word you hear very often hey!

Until now, pratique was given to all flights unless the captain declared otherwise, ie it was assumed you were disease free unless the Captain notified the authorities otherwise.

The change is that now that assumption is not made, and flights have to declare yes or no to "disease on board". On some ACARS aircraft the sent arrival message already includes a "Y/N" for sickness, and so by default they were already meeting this requirement. For that reason you won't see any of these "free of disease" statements from the QF744, as it sends it as part of the ACARS message.

The 767 is not so lucky, so every international flight will have a text statement.


As an aside, I am also of the thought that a lot of these messages should not be published. I am well aware that it is possible to intercept ACARS messages, however they ARE company confidential, and are not for public viewing. Confidential and sensitive information is sent, and should not be read easily by the general public. I know that Grahame does filter and sanitise some of the material, but it does not resolve the fact that it is all private information.

Despite the fact that someones name is removed, how would you all feel if your emails to your wife/tennis partner/dog were freely available on the internet for all to read? These are not "over the airwaves" transmissions that everyone knows are available... 95% of crew believe that what they write in a private ACARS message remains that way... private... and as a spotting group we should respect that privacy.

Here Here

another way of looking at it?
 

Leaving the ethics of republishing data aside, any system that relies on security by obscurity can't really be said to be confidential.

The ARINC 800 series specifications includes encrypted datalink messages, if you don't want someone reading your data transmissions (in any system, not just aviation) then you encrypt it, otherwise you can't really expect folks not to look.

So since it is possible to prevent unauthorised access to the data, and the messages mentioned haven't been encrypted, then one can only assume the airlines don't think it is worthwhile to encrypt, but that is a whole different question to that of (re)publishing personal details.

Yes and the orginal poster deleted the surname of the FA thus ensuring privacy. So the whole debate to me seem to be moot.