Narrative:

On arrival [an air carrier] declared emergency due to smoke in the cockpit as they approached [an intersection] descending to cross it at 16;000. I ran over from a different d-side to assist. I immediately called TRACON to coordinate direct [to the airport]. Their response was that they would be unable to get him down on such a route. They requested we put him on a (very indirect) 270 heading so they could get him down or give him direct [another intersection]. After 3 phone calls; we (somewhat forcibly) gave them the aircraft direct a fix nearer the airport of the pilots' choosing. We then observed the aircraft being turned due west to what appeared to be the originally desired 270 heading in what appeared to be an effort to sequence the aircraft behind another inbound. This issue comes up all the time with TRACON concerning both emergencies and medevacs. They are completely unwilling to accept aircraft direct [to the airport] from the southeast because of the terrain. In the cases of our medevacs and; in this instance; [the emergency air carrier]; the pilots involved are all quite familiar with the terrain surrounding the area and would not request such routes if their aircraft were not completely capable of descending to the field elevation in the 15 to the airport. This was a legit emergency with smoke in the cockpit where time can certainly matter. Do we as center controllers just have an unreasonable expectation of what priority handling should entail?

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Enroute controller voiced concern regarding the TRACON's handling of an emergency aircraft with regard to priority; often failing to afford priority to emergency and Medevac operations.

Narrative: On arrival [an Air Carrier] declared emergency due to smoke in the cockpit as they approached [an intersection] descending to cross it at 16;000. I ran over from a different D-Side to assist. I immediately called TRACON to coordinate direct [to the airport]. Their response was that they would be unable to get him down on such a route. They requested we put him on a (very indirect) 270 heading so they could get him down or give him direct [another intersection]. After 3 phone calls; we (somewhat forcibly) gave them the aircraft direct a fix nearer the airport of the pilots' choosing. We then observed the aircraft being turned due west to what appeared to be the originally desired 270 heading in what appeared to be an effort to sequence the aircraft behind another inbound. This issue comes up all the time with TRACON concerning both emergencies and Medevacs. They are completely unwilling to accept aircraft direct [to the airport] from the southeast because of the terrain. In the cases of our Medevacs and; in this instance; [the emergency Air Carrier]; the pilots involved are all quite familiar with the terrain surrounding the area and would not request such routes if their aircraft were not completely capable of descending to the field elevation in the 15 to the airport. This was a legit emergency with smoke in the cockpit where time can certainly matter. Do we as Center controllers just have an unreasonable expectation of what priority handling should entail?

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.