ZHU controller describes a situation where he thought an undirected handoff was incorrect. The contr...

Narrative:

Yesterday I handed off a west bound aircraft which was landing at dwh; level at 060; to I90 tomball sector. The undirected hand off flashed initially to the I90 das sector. Thinking that this was an eram anomaly I retracted the hand off and directed the hand off to I90 tomball. Upon acceptance of the hand off I switched the aircraft to I90 tomball sector and no further communication with the aircraft or any I90 controllers occurred after that. This afternoon; as colleagues were discussing the recent re stratification of some of I90's airspace it occurred to me that there were some changes made around the northeast inbound gates. When I checked the sector map I found that the floor of the I90 das sector had indeed been dropped to 060 from its previous floor of 070 prior to the optimization of airspace & procedures in the metroplex (oapm) changes last may. I am reasonably certain that I allowed the aircraft in question to enter I90 das sector without a point out or hand off. When an undirected hand off flashes to an unexpected sector that some effort is made to find out why this is occurring. Had I quickly reviewed the overhead chart I would have had my answer and would have avoided this event.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: ZHU Controller describes a situation where he thought an undirected handoff was incorrect. The Controller took the handoff back and directed it to what he/she thought was the correct area. Controller later finds out other facilities airspace had changed; which resulted in an airspace deviation.

Narrative: Yesterday I handed off a west bound aircraft which was landing at DWH; level at 060; to I90 Tomball sector. The undirected hand off flashed initially to the I90 DAS sector. Thinking that this was an ERAM anomaly I retracted the hand off and directed the hand off to I90 Tomball. Upon acceptance of the hand off I switched the aircraft to I90 Tomball sector and no further communication with the aircraft or any I90 controllers occurred after that. This afternoon; as colleagues were discussing the recent re stratification of some of I90's airspace it occurred to me that there were some changes made around the NE inbound gates. When I checked the sector map I found that the floor of the I90 DAS sector had indeed been dropped to 060 from its previous floor of 070 prior to the Optimization of Airspace & Procedures in the Metroplex (OAPM) changes last May. I am reasonably certain that I allowed the aircraft in question to enter I90 DAS sector without a point out or hand off. When an undirected hand off flashes to an unexpected sector that some effort is made to find out why this is occurring. Had I quickly reviewed the overhead chart I would have had my answer and would have avoided this event.

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	1204727
Time
Date	201409
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	DWH.Airport
State Reference	TX
Environment
Light	Night
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Any Unknown or Unlisted Aircraft Manufacturer
Flight Phase	Cruise
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Enroute
Qualification	Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Experience	Air Traffic Control Time Certified In Pos 1 (yrs) 24
Events
Anomaly	Airspace Violation All Types Deviation - Procedural Clearance Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy

ZHU controller describes a situation where he thought an undirected handoff was incorrect. The controller took the handoff back and directed it to what he/she thought was the correct area. Controller later finds out other facilities airspace had changed; which resulted in an airspace deviation.