Narrative:

Aircraft X was on his course which took him directly through the departure corridor of sjc. I had already taken him off of his mission multiple times in the past hour because of high volume departures. After the last rush of departures; I allowed him to rejoin his course. At that time; sjc tower ran down a departure; so I was aware aircraft Y would depart sometime soon. As soon as I saw aircraft Y was airborne; I called the traffic to aircraft X. He said he would maintain visual separation. I advised aircraft Y when he checked on of the traffic and that aircraft X had him in sight; maintaining visual separation. On the radar; in my judgement it looked like a TCAS RA was imminent; so I asked aircraft X if he was going to maneuver to avoid. Then I took action and turned aircraft X north to avoid. I had target resolution separation; but aircraft Y said something about not having an RA; but also something about evasive action. In my judgment; if I hadn't turned aircraft X; there would have been at least an RA; possibly a near midair collision. Aircraft Y was upset that the aircraft was belly towards him and so couldn't maintain visual anymore; but I felt I had to turn aircraft X to avoid a near midair collision.stop approving photo mission in dangerous airspace. There have been far too many photo missions in dangerous areas in direct conflict with IFR traffic. The 2 options we have at the toga sector are to hold sjc departures for 5-6 minutes until aircraft X gets out of the departure corridor (extremely inefficient; terrible delays especially with flow times to places like la and ord); or to tell aircraft X that his photo mission is unable. It is unsafe to have both of these ops going on at the same time. We cannot provide adequate service for some of these photo missions safely.

Google
 

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: NCT TRACON Controller reported of an unsafe operation with a VFR photo mission aircraft and a departure off SJC. The VFR aircraft had the IFR departure in sight and the reporter thought the VFR would do a better job of staying away from the IFR departure. Controller took action to resolve the situation and turned the VFR aircraft.

Narrative: Aircraft X was on his course which took him directly through the departure corridor of SJC. I had already taken him off of his mission multiple times in the past hour because of high volume departures. After the last rush of departures; I allowed him to rejoin his course. At that time; SJC tower ran down a departure; so I was aware Aircraft Y would depart sometime soon. As soon as I saw Aircraft Y was airborne; I called the traffic to Aircraft X. He said he would maintain visual separation. I advised Aircraft Y when he checked on of the traffic and that Aircraft X had him in sight; maintaining visual separation. On the radar; in my judgement it looked like a TCAS RA was imminent; so I asked Aircraft X if he was going to maneuver to avoid. Then I took action and turned Aircraft X north to avoid. I had target resolution separation; but Aircraft Y said something about not having an RA; but also something about evasive action. In my judgment; if I hadn't turned Aircraft X; there would have been at least an RA; possibly a NMAC. Aircraft Y was upset that the aircraft was belly towards him and so couldn't maintain visual anymore; but I felt I had to turn Aircraft X to avoid a NMAC.Stop approving photo mission in dangerous airspace. There have been far too many photo missions in dangerous areas in direct conflict with IFR traffic. The 2 options we have at the Toga sector are to hold SJC departures for 5-6 minutes until Aircraft X gets out of the departure corridor (extremely inefficient; terrible delays especially with flow times to places like LA and ORD); or to tell Aircraft X that his photo mission is unable. It is unsafe to have both of these ops going on at the same time. We cannot provide adequate service for some of these photo missions safely.

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.