Narrative:

I was conducting OJT on sectors 59/93 radar associate position. Aircraft X arrived on frequency and the radar controller asked him if he had the current weather and notams' for his destination; to which the pilot responded in the affirmative. All coordination with pertinent adjacent sectors had been accomplished and the radar controller cleared aircraft X for an instrument approach to czt airport. The pilot arrived back on frequency within five or six minutes and advised that the runway was closed and had men/equipment on it. He asked if we were aware. When we checked the erids monitor for notams to czt we saw the runway outage but we advised the pilot that the NOTAM had expired two hours previously. He left the frequency momentarily and we double checked the NOTAM and realized that the NOTAM did not actually expire. We misread the expiration date. When we were able to talk with the pilot again; we relayed that the NOTAM was in fact valid. The pilot canceled IFR and; to my knowledge; proceeded VFR to nearby cot and landed.there is an unrealistic burden placed upon controllers to monitor and forward 'pertinent' notams to aircraft landing at uncontrolled airports. At any point; I can bring up NOTAM information for small uncontrolled airports in west texas and there will generally be no less than a dozen notams'; mostly tower lights out of service. In the event described above; the NOTAM was effective when the pilot filed the flight plan. The controller asked the pilot if he had the notams' and he said he did. That; in my opinion; is where the controller's responsibility should end. When controllers begin to interpret what is 'pertinent' for an airport; the door is left open to liability and litigation. It is my earnest desire that this problem will be addressed and the burden of responsibility placed appropriately on the pilot.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Controllers at ZHU complain about the responsibility of having to know and provide NOTAM information to pilots after an aircraft is cleared for an instrument approach to a closed runway.

Narrative: I was conducting OJT on sectors 59/93 RADAR associate position. Aircraft X arrived on frequency and the Radar Controller asked him if he had the current weather and NOTAMs' for his destination; to which the pilot responded in the affirmative. All coordination with pertinent adjacent sectors had been accomplished and the Radar Controller cleared Aircraft X for an instrument approach to CZT airport. The pilot arrived back on frequency within five or six minutes and advised that the runway was closed and had men/equipment on it. He asked if we were aware. When we checked the ERIDS monitor for NOTAMs to CZT we saw the runway outage but we advised the pilot that the NOTAM had expired two hours previously. He left the frequency momentarily and we double checked the NOTAM and realized that the NOTAM did not actually expire. We misread the expiration date. When we were able to talk with the pilot again; we relayed that the NOTAM was in fact valid. The pilot canceled IFR and; to my knowledge; proceeded VFR to nearby COT and landed.There is an unrealistic burden placed upon controllers to monitor and forward 'pertinent' NOTAMs to aircraft landing at uncontrolled airports. At any point; I can bring up NOTAM information for small uncontrolled airports in West Texas and there will generally be no less than a dozen NOTAMs'; mostly tower lights out of service. In the event described above; the NOTAM was effective when the pilot filed the flight plan. The controller asked the pilot if he had the NOTAMs' and he said he did. That; in my opinion; is where the controller's responsibility should end. When controllers begin to interpret what is 'pertinent' for an airport; the door is left open to liability and litigation. It is my earnest desire that this problem will be addressed and the burden of responsibility placed appropriately on the pilot.

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.