Narrative:

The pilot of air carrier X broadcasted he was descending to FL290 because he 'heard a loud noise' and wanted to divert. At the time of broadcast I had just assumed the ZZZ airspace; and was in the process of syncing the combined sector frequencies and also evaluating a potential traffic situation. Because I was momentarily distracted I had to confirm what I thought I heard with the pilot of air carrier X. After confirmation; I immediately sent a data block to the next sector and called to coordinate. As I was coordinating; I was attempting to 'quick look' the next sector to assess any traffic situations. However; the sector was combined unbeknownst to me. I was frantically 'quick looking' every sector number I could think of at the time. I finally discovered the right sector. The pilot informed me he had to descend. I issued the traffic; opposite direction at FL320.' with the insistence of the pilot needing to descend; I then instructed air carrier X to descend rapidly through FL310 and maintain FL240. The pilot of air carrier X was able to maintain FL330 and then descended the aircraft to FL240 upon passing the FL320 traffic. I then asked air carrier X how he wanted to proceed; the pilot responded via radar vectors. I issued present heading and gave a frequency change. Although I have had numerous emergency scenarios in which the pilot is in need of an imminent descent; I have never been faced with one in such close proximity to conflicting traffic. What complicated this scenario is I had no communication with the conflicting aircraft (FL320); and poor communication with the controller that had communication ability with the conflicting traffic.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Enroute Controller described an emergency descent event; coordinating separation efforts with adjacent sectors. The reporter never before experienced an emergency descent resulting in potential conflicts with several aircraft.

Narrative: The pilot of Air Carrier X broadcasted he was descending to FL290 because he 'heard a loud noise' and wanted to divert. At the time of broadcast I had just assumed the ZZZ airspace; and was in the process of syncing the combined sector frequencies and also evaluating a potential traffic situation. Because I was momentarily distracted I had to confirm what I thought I heard with the pilot of Air Carrier X. After confirmation; I immediately sent a Data Block to the next sector and called to coordinate. As I was coordinating; I was attempting to 'quick look' the next sector to assess any traffic situations. However; the sector was combined unbeknownst to me. I was frantically 'quick looking' every sector number I could think of at the time. I finally discovered the right sector. The pilot informed me he had to descend. I issued the traffic; opposite direction at FL320.' With the insistence of the pilot needing to descend; I then instructed Air Carrier X to descend rapidly through FL310 and maintain FL240. The pilot of Air Carrier X was able to maintain FL330 and then descended the aircraft to FL240 upon passing the FL320 traffic. I then asked Air Carrier X how he wanted to proceed; the pilot responded via RADAR vectors. I issued present heading and gave a frequency change. Although I have had numerous emergency scenarios in which the pilot is in need of an imminent descent; I have never been faced with one in such close proximity to conflicting traffic. What complicated this scenario is I had no communication with the conflicting aircraft (FL320); and poor communication with the Controller that had communication ability with the conflicting traffic.

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.