Frequency loss on all radios and facility land lines created a situation where the controllers could...

Narrative:

While I was controller in charge for the controller on the approach position; we both noticed a quick squelch come through our headsets and all the shout lines and dial lines lit up. We both switched them to the off position and thought nothing of it. Then I remembered that a previous controller who had left the facility a couple hours ago said they had something similar happen; but he didn't mention anything about losing shoutlines and the frequency in passing. After mentioning it to the cpc on approach; he had an air carrier come off of bmi climbing to 10;000 on runway heading which was assigned before the loss of line communication. The controller tried to talk to the aircraft; but he couldn't hear him. I told him to try his standbys and nothing there as well. At this point; the air carrier was climbing toward cmi airspace and we were trying to get a hold of them to make a point out with no avail. Bmi tower tried to call us; but we were unable to talk to him either. They monitor our frequencies and could tell something was up; so they called cmi and let them know about the aircraft and were able to coordinate with ZAU above ours and cmi airspace. Cmi had even tried to contact us via the shout line; but again; when we would punch in; nothing was coming out from our end. I called upstairs to the building controller in charge and let him know the situation and two other controllers came in from being on break and helped us out. Essentially; all shout lines and bmi frequency were only able to receive; we had no transmitting capability. We all coordinated with the adjacent/higher sectors and told them to put aircraft on our other frequency; and that all coordination would need to be done via the landline until further advised. Mocc; tech ops; and chicago center were subsequently notified of the situation as well. We had no other issues with any other aircraft as this aircraft was the only one who was a conflict. I have no recommendations; it was an isolated incident that I had never seen happen.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Frequency loss on all radios and facility land lines created a situation where the controllers could not communicate with an airborne aircraft or other ATC Facilities.

Narrative: While I was CIC for the controller on the approach position; we both noticed a quick squelch come through our headsets and all the shout lines and dial lines lit up. We both switched them to the off position and thought nothing of it. Then I remembered that a previous Controller who had left the facility a couple hours ago said they had something similar happen; but he didn't mention anything about losing shoutlines and the frequency in passing. After mentioning it to the CPC on approach; he had an Air Carrier come off of BMI climbing to 10;000 on runway heading which was assigned before the loss of line communication. The controller tried to talk to the aircraft; but he couldn't hear him. I told him to try his standbys and nothing there as well. At this point; the Air Carrier was climbing toward CMI airspace and we were trying to get a hold of them to make a point out with no avail. BMI Tower tried to call us; but we were unable to talk to him either. They monitor our frequencies and could tell something was up; so they called CMI and let them know about the aircraft and were able to coordinate with ZAU above ours and CMI airspace. CMI had even tried to contact us via the shout line; but again; when we would punch in; nothing was coming out from our end. I called upstairs to the building CIC and let him know the situation and two other controllers came in from being on break and helped us out. Essentially; all shout lines and BMI frequency were only able to receive; we had no transmitting capability. We all coordinated with the adjacent/higher sectors and told them to put aircraft on our other frequency; and that all coordination would need to be done via the landline until further advised. MOCC; Tech Ops; and Chicago Center were subsequently notified of the situation as well. We had no other issues with any other aircraft as this aircraft was the only one who was a conflict. I have no recommendations; it was an isolated incident that I had never seen happen.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site 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.

Attributes
ACN	1156736
Time
Date	201403
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	PIA.TRACON
State Reference	IL
Environment
Light	Night
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Large Transport
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Climb
Route In Use	Vectors
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Supervisor / CIC
Qualification	Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Experience	Air Traffic Control Time Certified In Pos 1 (yrs) 3.5
Person 2
Function	Approach
Qualification	Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Experience	Air Traffic Control Time Certified In Pos 1 (mon) 3
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Airspace Violation All Types Conflict Airborne Conflict Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy

Frequency loss on all radios and facility land lines created a situation where the controllers could not communicate with an airborne aircraft or other ATC facilities.