Restricted airspace was in use. The military agency responsible for the use of airspace failed to no...

Narrative:

Range control called to let us know they no longer had aircraft in restricted airspace. He stated he may not have called us before they did it; but they were done now. I responded that we only showed two areas active; and questioned him again. We hung up the line and I reported to the supervisor what had happened and that there was a distinct possibility that we had run multiple aircraft through the active restricted area with airplanes within it. We checked previous controllers to see if they had called to activate the restricted area; range control had not called to advise us. The supervisor called to follow up; and they had logged that the area not called in as hot with aircraft that were active [for about two hours].we ran two aircraft through the active range. One at 7;000 feet and one at 8;000 feet that I am aware of. There may have been others.the procedure to notify us was changed several months ago; and I have had doubts that the personnel that are supposed to contact us know what we do and the importance of timely notifications. The army should be advised of the danger they caused and the individual at range control should not be allowed to remain in that position. The individuals in that job need to be retrained; and until such time; the old procedure needs to be put in place.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Restricted Airspace was in use. The military agency responsible for the use of airspace failed to notify the ATC facility. Aircraft were routed through Restricted Airspace while it was in use by the military.

Narrative: Range Control called to let us know they no longer had aircraft in Restricted Airspace. He stated he may not have called us before they did it; but they were done now. I responded that we only showed two areas active; and questioned him again. We hung up the line and I reported to the supervisor what had happened and that there was a distinct possibility that we had run multiple aircraft through the active restricted area with airplanes within it. We checked previous controllers to see if they had called to activate the restricted area; Range Control had not called to advise us. The supervisor called to follow up; and they had logged that the area not called in as hot with aircraft that were active [for about two hours].We ran two aircraft through the active range. One at 7;000 feet and one at 8;000 feet that I am aware of. There may have been others.The procedure to notify us was changed several months ago; and I have had doubts that the personnel that are supposed to contact us know what we do and the importance of timely notifications. The Army should be advised of the danger they caused and the individual at Range Control should not be allowed to remain in that position. The individuals in that job need to be retrained; and until such time; the old procedure needs to be put in place.

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	1322715
Time
Date	201601
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	A80.TRACON
State Reference	GA
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Any Unknown or Unlisted Aircraft Manufacturer
Flight Phase	Cruise
Flight Plan	IFR
Aircraft 2
Make Model Name	Any Unknown or Unlisted Aircraft Manufacturer
Flight Phase	Cruise
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Approach
Qualification	Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Experience	Air Traffic Control Time Certified In Pos 1 (yrs) 7.0
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Airspace Violation All Types Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy

Restricted airspace was in use. The military agency responsible for the use of airspace failed to notify the ATC facility. Aircraft were routed through restricted airspace while it was in use by the military.