Narrative:

A C414 was inbound to sph from the east northeast. The pilot was told to expect a visual approach and was asked if they had the weather and NOTAMS. The pilot replied he had weather and NOTAMS. Sph is located on the boundary with mlu low and shv approach; so I pointed the aircraft out to shv as landing sph and expecting a visual approach and the point out was approved. The pilot cancelled his flight plan about 15 miles from sph. About 10 minutes later; the pilot checked back on VFR and said that the NOTAMS he had did not indicate that the airport was closed but that sph was in fact closed. He informed me that he was on the unicom frequency and they were trying to open the airport for him. I first called shv and asked if they were showing sph closed to which they replied that they were not and would check in to it. I looked at the NOTAMS and the first 2 NOTAMS were for a taxiway being closed and the second was for the PAPI lighting being out of service. The third NOTAM was airworthiness directive (ad) closed. The forth and fifth NOTAMS were for tower lights out of service about 6 and 9 miles from sph. By having the ad closed as the third item; there was confusion on my part and the pilot's part that the airport was in fact closed. If the airport is closed; the other items on the NOTAMS become irrelevant as they are part of the aerodrome. Either the other outage NOTAMS need to be replaced by ad closed and reinstated after the ad is reopened or at the very least the ad closed should be the first NOTAM. Also I question whether the pilot was confused (as I was initially) by what ad meant. As many abbreviations as there are for items around the airport and now the added ICAO abbreviations can lead to uncertainty of what is actually out or closed. The second item that could have prevented this would have been the status information area for both mlu low and shv correctly indicating that the aerodrome was closed.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: ZFW Controller described an event where traffic inbound to SPH confirmed receipt of all NOTAMS; was released to Unicom frequency only to discover the airport was NOTAMED closed.

Narrative: A C414 was inbound to SPH from the east northeast. The pilot was told to expect a visual approach and was asked if they had the weather and NOTAMS. The pilot replied he had weather and NOTAMS. SPH is located on the boundary with MLU low and SHV Approach; so I pointed the aircraft out to SHV as landing SPH and expecting a visual approach and the point out was approved. The pilot cancelled his flight plan about 15 miles from SPH. About 10 minutes later; the pilot checked back on VFR and said that the NOTAMS he had did not indicate that the airport was closed but that SPH was in fact closed. He informed me that he was on the Unicom frequency and they were trying to open the airport for him. I first called SHV and asked if they were showing SPH closed to which they replied that they were not and would check in to it. I looked at the NOTAMS and the first 2 NOTAMS were for a taxiway being closed and the second was for the PAPI lighting being out of service. The third NOTAM was Airworthiness Directive (AD) closed. The forth and fifth NOTAMS were for Tower lights out of service about 6 and 9 miles from SPH. By having the AD closed as the third item; there was confusion on my part and the pilot's part that the airport was in fact closed. If the airport is closed; the other items on the NOTAMS become irrelevant as they are part of the aerodrome. Either the other outage NOTAMS need to be replaced by AD closed and reinstated after the AD is reopened or at the very least the AD closed should be the first NOTAM. Also I question whether the pilot was confused (as I was initially) by what AD meant. As many abbreviations as there are for items around the airport and now the added ICAO abbreviations can lead to uncertainty of what is actually out or closed. The second item that could have prevented this would have been the Status Information Area for both MLU low and SHV correctly indicating that the Aerodrome was closed.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.