Narrative:

I plugged into the sector to receive a position relief briefing. During the briefing I noticed an aircraft was cleared to operate at an altitude that was below the minimum IFR altitude for the airspace it was cleared to operate in. I questioned the controller I was relieving as to how this occurred and his response was that this had been approved by traffic management coordinator and the supervisor so it must be ok. I could not believe this answer. The aircraft in question that was still on an IFR flight plan and had been cleared to operate in a block altitude of 050b100 feet. The minimum IFR altitude in the area this aircraft was operating in is 5;800 feet MSL. This is yet another example of the management of hcf disregarding existing ATC rules and procedures governing IFR flight. How can it possibly be acceptable to ever clear any aircraft on an IFR flight plan below the minimum altitude for IFR flight? Years ago the management at hcf decided to implement oceanic mia's into hcf domestic airspace. This resulted in a vast area of hcf airspace now being assigned mia's of 5;800 feet MSL over the ocean. This has resulted in numerous denials to IFR aircraft to operate below 6;000 feet MSL. In one instance an aircraft had to cancel IFR because it could not make the minimum IFR altitude of 6;000 feet. The management at hcf must realize that the en-route airspace over the ocean is domestic airspace and as such the mia's must be returned to 1;500 feet MSL (1;200 feet+300 foot buffer over the surface) as prescribed for in creating minimum IFR altitudes.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A Controller reported being told by their supervisor and Traffic Management Unit that they could approve an altitude below the Minimum IFR Altitude for a military aircraft conducting training.

Narrative: I plugged into the sector to receive a position relief briefing. During the briefing I noticed an aircraft was cleared to operate at an altitude that was below the Minimum IFR Altitude for the airspace it was cleared to operate in. I questioned the controller I was relieving as to how this occurred and his response was that this had been approved by Traffic Management Coordinator and the supervisor so it must be ok. I could not believe this answer. The aircraft in question that was still on an IFR flight plan and had been cleared to operate in a block altitude of 050B100 feet. The Minimum IFR Altitude in the area this aircraft was operating in is 5;800 feet MSL. This is yet another example of the management of HCF disregarding existing ATC rules and procedures governing IFR flight. How can it possibly be acceptable to ever clear any aircraft on an IFR flight plan below the minimum altitude for IFR flight? Years ago the management at HCF decided to implement OCEANIC MIA's into HCF domestic airspace. This resulted in a vast area of HCF airspace now being assigned MIA's of 5;800 feet MSL over the ocean. This has resulted in numerous denials to IFR aircraft to operate below 6;000 feet MSL. In one instance an aircraft had to cancel IFR because it could not make the minimum IFR altitude of 6;000 feet. The management at HCF must realize that the en-route airspace over the ocean is domestic airspace and as such the MIA's must be returned to 1;500 feet MSL (1;200 feet+300 foot buffer over the surface) as prescribed for in creating minimum IFR altitudes.

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.