Eug TRACON controller reported being distracted by an aircraft not in his airspace that was giving o...

Narrative:

Aircraft X had departed eug and was enroute to their destination VFR. When aircraft X was approximately 15 miles from the ZSE boundary; not yet in handoff status; I began receiving a low altitude alert on an aircraft well north of my airspace at 300 AGL. I had no flight strip on this aircraft and didn't know anything about it. We recently transitioned to stars and I never had this issue in ARTS where we would get a low altitude alert on a center tag well out of our airspace. I tried numerous times to 'multifunction zp' the aircraft to get a printout; as we have been instructed to do for any stars issues. The entry didn't work and as I was trying to find our stars trouble sheet to fill out a record of the incident; aircraft X exited the airspace to the north; still on my tag; and about 1 mile into the center's airspace. I immediately started an automated and manual handoff. Being distracted by the odd low altitude alert and trying to get the stars multifunction zp entry to work/find the paperwork led to the aircraft flying out of my airspace. We have been having this issue with stars so my recommendation would be to fix the system so we are not getting alerts on aircraft that we have no need to know about. It is very distracting trying to figure out why you are getting a low altitude alert on an aircraft that isn't on your scope.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: EUG TRACON Controller reported being distracted by an aircraft not in his airspace that was giving off a low altitude alert. While observing this aircraft; one under his control entered ZSE airspace without a correct handoff. Reporter cited STARS as being part of the problem.

Narrative: Aircraft X had departed EUG and was enroute to their destination VFR. When Aircraft X was approximately 15 miles from the ZSE boundary; not yet in handoff status; I began receiving a low altitude alert on an aircraft well north of my airspace at 300 AGL. I had no flight strip on this aircraft and didn't know anything about it. We recently transitioned to STARS and I never had this issue in ARTS where we would get a low altitude alert on a Center tag well out of our airspace. I tried numerous times to 'Multifunction ZP' the aircraft to get a printout; as we have been instructed to do for any STARS issues. The entry didn't work and as I was trying to find our STARS trouble sheet to fill out a record of the incident; Aircraft X exited the airspace to the north; still on my tag; and about 1 mile into the Center's airspace. I immediately started an automated and manual handoff. Being distracted by the odd low altitude alert and trying to get the STARS Multifunction ZP entry to work/find the paperwork led to the aircraft flying out of my airspace. We have been having this issue with STARS so my recommendation would be to fix the system so we are not getting alerts on aircraft that we have no need to know about. It is very distracting trying to figure out why you are getting a low altitude alert on an aircraft that isn't on your scope.

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	1396294
Time
Date	201610
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	GTF.TRACON
State Reference	MT
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Small Aircraft Low Wing 1 Eng Retractable Gear
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Cruise
Flight Plan	VFR
Aircraft 2
Make Model Name	Any Unknown or Unlisted Aircraft Manufacturer
Person 1
Function	Approach Departure
Qualification	Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Experience	Air Traffic Control Time Certified In Pos 1 (yrs) 1.6
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Airspace Violation All Types Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Inflight Event / Encounter CFTT / CFIT

Eug TRACON controller reported being distracted by an aircraft not in his airspace that was giving off a low altitude alert. While observing this aircraft; one under his control entered ZSE airspace without a correct handoff. Reporter cited stars as being part of the problem.