Narrative:

When I returned to the area from break I sat down on the plano/streator D side. The sector already looked busy and I asked the supervisor why streator wasn't split off. He didn't answer me but just stood behind the sector and watched the next 30 minutes explode. I don't think we would have been able to split the sector at that point anyway; because there were too many pairs of aircraft coming together that had to be separated quickly. The radar controller was giving mdw ENDEE3 STAR arrivals direct to endee and telling them to cross endee @6;000; which puts them together with the arrivals descending on the TURTL2 arrival. The ENDEE3 and TURTL2 are designed to be able to give arriving aircraft 'descend via' clearances and the aircraft will remain separated during the entire descent into C90 airspace. This radar controller has a habit of giving mdw arrivals 'direct endee; cross endee @6;000' while at the same time giving aircraft on the TURTL2 arrival direct turtl cross turtl @11;000 and 300 kts'. By doing this he has no separation between these aircraft. By time I sat down on the 'D' side; he had done this with several pairs of aircraft on both arrivals and as a result had no separation between the multitude of pairs of aircraft. I showed him three pairs of aircraft that were descending together side by side that were not separated in any way and would have to be turned. When these pairs got closer; conflict alert began going off; at which time I again told him he had to turn these aircraft. The radar controller turned some aircraft slightly; after which I repeatedly told him his heading were not going to work and he had to turn the aircraft more. At one point he said his headings were fine; as the aircraft came together with less than 5 miles separation. He let these aircraft run along side each other with less than 5 miles and made no attempt to turn the aircraft further apart for separation until he had to turn a jet for sequencing. At times there were so many pairs of aircraft coming together that I could not keep track of them all. I kept giving him suggestions to keep the aircraft separated but the radar controller kept giving the same 'direct endee cross @6;000' and 'cross turtl @ 11;000' clearances that just kept putting more pairs of aircraft together. It was as though he was trying to get them as close as possible with no applied separation. When it was all over he said; 'well I better atsap that'. At the time I saw at least 2 pairs of aircraft that were not separated. I'm sure there were more that I didn't see. Please look at a falcon of this session and do something to keep this from happening again. This radar controller constantly gives ord and mdw arrivals clearances that are not separated in any way. He does it day after day and this time it caught up with him. Next time he could have worse than a couple of deals. Require that controllers keep aircraft on the ENDEE3; BENKY2; and TURTL2 arrivals unless they are turned for traffic. The FAA spent a lot of money developing the arrivals to safely get airplanes into ord and mdw.

Related reports:

Google
 

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: ZAU Controller describes a situation while working a D side position and the R side controller not following the SOP and ending up with numerous separation errors. The Controller did not issue Descend Via clearances.

Narrative: When I returned to the area from break I sat down on the PLANO/STREATOR D side. The sector already looked busy and I asked the supervisor why STREATOR wasn't split off. He didn't answer me but just stood behind the sector and watched the next 30 minutes explode. I don't think we would have been able to split the sector at that point anyway; because there were too many pairs of aircraft coming together that had to be separated quickly. The radar controller was giving MDW ENDEE3 STAR arrivals direct to ENDEE and telling them to cross ENDEE @6;000; which puts them together with the arrivals descending on the TURTL2 arrival. The ENDEE3 and TURTL2 are designed to be able to give arriving aircraft 'Descend VIA' clearances and the aircraft will remain separated during the entire descent into C90 airspace. This radar controller has a habit of giving MDW arrivals 'Direct ENDEE; cross ENDEE @6;000' while at the same time giving aircraft on the TURTL2 arrival direct TURTL cross TURTL @11;000 and 300 kts'. By doing this he has no separation between these aircraft. By time I sat down on the 'D' side; he had done this with several pairs of aircraft on both arrivals and as a result had no separation between the multitude of pairs of aircraft. I showed him three pairs of aircraft that were descending together side by side that were not separated in any way and would have to be turned. When these pairs got closer; conflict alert began going off; at which time I again told him he had to turn these aircraft. The Radar controller turned some aircraft slightly; after which I repeatedly told him his heading were not going to work and he had to turn the aircraft more. At one point he said his headings were fine; as the aircraft came together with less than 5 miles separation. He let these aircraft run along side each other with less than 5 miles and made no attempt to turn the aircraft further apart for separation until he had to turn a jet for sequencing. At times there were so many pairs of aircraft coming together that I could not keep track of them all. I kept giving him suggestions to keep the aircraft separated but the Radar controller kept giving the same 'Direct ENDEE cross @6;000' and 'Cross TURTL @ 11;000' clearances that just kept putting more pairs of aircraft together. It was as though he was trying to get them as close as possible with no applied separation. When it was all over he said; 'Well I better ATSAP that'. At the time I saw at least 2 pairs of aircraft that were not separated. I'm sure there were more that I didn't see. Please look at a FALCON of this session and do something to keep this from happening again. This radar controller constantly gives ORD and MDW arrivals clearances that are not separated in any way. He does it day after day and this time it caught up with him. Next time he could have worse than a couple of deals. Require that controllers keep aircraft on the ENDEE3; BENKY2; and TURTL2 arrivals unless they are turned for traffic. The FAA spent a lot of money developing the arrivals to safely get airplanes into ORD and MDW.

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.