Narrative:

My trainee and I relieved another training team about 15 minutes prior to the event. It had been busy with military practice approaches and the team we relieved was a little behind. Traffic was as complex and busy as my trainee had seen since we started training; including multiple military student pilots in high performance aircraft making practice instrument approaches. My trainee did not immediately 'attack the problem' and started to get behind by failing to answer some calls. He did not get to start talking before I had to assume the position. My trainee remained seated to take care of strips and data block entries. I was talking pretty fast and my trainee was not keeping up with data block entries; even when I gave specific instructions. Approach was holding 6 UH60 aircraft over the ZZZ VOR and the data blocks were overlapping pretty bad. A BE20 was an overflight in our airspace when we took the position. The BE20 was IFR at 100 navigating VOR1..ZZZ..VOR2. I became very busy with IFR traffic our primary airport; as the BE20 entered the area of data block overlaps. I did not ensure that the trainee had made the automated handoff. We also had a controller in charge working as a handoff; and the watch supervisor watching from another scope. The BE20 was observed on our tag in another controller's airspace. The controller in charge called the adjacent controller and they stated that they had been blocking for the BE20 and considered it a radar hand off. I am not sure of the legalities so I filed this report. The trainee was removed from position soon after the event. Do not consider training with a lower time trainee when traffic is at this level.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: TRACON Controller providing OJT experienced an airspace incursion event when the Trainee became overwhelmed with the volume and complexity of traffic; the reporter acknowledging that allowing training to continue was in error.

Narrative: My Trainee and I relieved another training team about 15 minutes prior to the event. It had been busy with military practice approaches and the team we relieved was a little behind. Traffic was as complex and busy as my Trainee had seen since we started training; including multiple military student pilots in high performance aircraft making practice instrument approaches. My Trainee did not immediately 'attack the problem' and started to get behind by failing to answer some calls. He did not get to start talking before I had to assume the position. My Trainee remained seated to take care of strips and data block entries. I was talking pretty fast and my Trainee was not keeping up with data block entries; even when I gave specific instructions. Approach was holding 6 UH60 aircraft over the ZZZ VOR and the data blocks were overlapping pretty bad. A BE20 was an overflight in our airspace when we took the position. The BE20 was IFR at 100 navigating VOR1..ZZZ..VOR2. I became very busy with IFR traffic our primary airport; as the BE20 entered the area of data block overlaps. I did not ensure that the Trainee had made the automated handoff. We also had a CIC working as a handoff; and the watch Supervisor watching from another scope. The BE20 was observed on our tag in another controller's airspace. The CIC called the adjacent Controller and they stated that they had been blocking for the BE20 and considered it a RADAR hand off. I am not sure of the legalities so I filed this report. The Trainee was removed from position soon after the event. Do not consider training with a lower time trainee when traffic is at this level.

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.