Narrative:

Aircraft X was on a visual approach from the north. My radar assist called the inbound to the tower in a timely manner and prior to me issuing the visual approach to aircraft X. Once the visual approach was given and aircraft X was descending through 7;000 feet; I noticed two aircraft departing and were climbing through 4;000 feet. The courses were head on. I called traffic to aircraft X then immediately called tower to ask if they had visual on the departures and aircraft X because it looked like they were head on and climbing and descending. The tower asked where the aircraft was and I responded by saying they were head on and only about 3 miles apart.I jumped off the land line and again called traffic for aircraft X this time aircraft X was descending through 6;000 feet and the departure was climbing through 5;000 feet still head on. I could not vector aircraft X because by this point he was below my minimum IFR altitudes. I attempted one more traffic call but at that point the aircraft were almost side by side and less than 1 mile apart. It looked like the departing aircraft actually turned towards aircraft X at the last second; but it is hard to tell. It looked like the closest the two aircraft got was about .5 miles; same altitude and opposite direction.these particular aircraft are operating out of the airport for 3 months (and just started this week) with course rules that do not separate VFR/IFR traffic. Tower should call center on every departure to get a release in order to avoid this from happening.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A flight of two aircraft departed an airport VFR and climbed head on into an inbound aircraft cleared for a Visual Approach.

Narrative: Aircraft X was on a Visual Approach from the North. My Radar Assist called the inbound to the Tower in a timely manner and prior to me issuing the Visual Approach to Aircraft X. Once the Visual Approach was given and Aircraft X was descending through 7;000 feet; I noticed two aircraft departing and were climbing through 4;000 feet. The courses were head on. I called traffic to Aircraft X then immediately called Tower to ask if they had visual on the departures and Aircraft X because it looked like they were head on and climbing and descending. The Tower asked where the aircraft was and I responded by saying they were head on and only about 3 miles apart.I jumped off the land line and again called traffic for Aircraft X this time Aircraft X was descending through 6;000 feet and the departure was climbing through 5;000 feet still head on. I could not vector Aircraft X because by this point he was below my Minimum IFR Altitudes. I attempted one more traffic call but at that point the aircraft were almost side by side and less than 1 mile apart. It looked like the departing aircraft actually turned towards Aircraft X at the last second; but it is hard to tell. It looked like the closest the two aircraft got was about .5 miles; same altitude and opposite direction.These particular aircraft are operating out of the airport for 3 months (and just started this week) with course rules that do not separate VFR/IFR traffic. Tower should call Center on every departure to get a release in order to avoid this from happening.

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.