When is a departure strip considered deadwood?

A departure strip is considered deadwood when the flight has been radar identified and the airspace associated with that flight has been canceled. This reflects a scenario where the flight has either departed and no longer requires the departure strip for air traffic control purposes or when the flight plan has been disregarded. The identifier of a flight in radar ensures that controllers have visual tracking capability, but once the airspace is canceled, the strip's purpose is no longer valid, leading to its classification as deadwood.

In contrast, simply having a flight plan filed or the aircraft having already departed does not necessarily mean the strip is considered deadwood. If the airspace is not canceled when a flight departs, the strip may still hold relevant information until all related control responsibilities are fully resolved. Likewise, the end of a shift relates to operational timings rather than the status of individual departure strips. Thus, the key reason that identifying the airspace cancellation is crucial to determining the deadwood status aligns with effective management of flight information and resources in air traffic control.