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ZOA center controller was handed off an aircraft from fat TRACON climbing to an altitude below the minimum IFR altitude along its route.
| Attributes | |
| ACN | 1399735 |
| Time | |
| Date | 201611 |
| Local Time Of Day | 0001-0600 |
| Place | |
| Locale Reference | ZOA.ARTCC |
| State Reference | CA |
| Aircraft 1 | |
| Make Model Name | Baron 55/Cochise |
| Operating Under FAR Part | Part 91 |
| Flight Phase | Initial Climb |
| Flight Plan | IFR |
| Person 1 | |
| Function | Enroute |
| Qualification | Air Traffic Control Fully Certified |
| Experience | Air Traffic Control Time Certified In Pos 1 (yrs) 6.1 |
| Events | |
| Anomaly | ATC Issue All Types Airspace Violation All Types Deviation - Procedural FAR Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Inflight Event / Encounter CFTT / CFIT |
Narrative:
BE55 filed an IFR altitude of 12;000 feet which was not appropriate for his route. The lowest IFR altitude that is appropriate for his route of flight is 17;000 feet. Fresno approach attempted to hand him off to ZOA sector 16 climbing into high terrain which is adjacent to their airspace. The sector 16 controller called fresno approach to try to resolve the unsafe situation by providing them an altitude to climb above the minimum IFR altitude (mia) and a time restriction to make sure that the aircraft could get above the mia. The poor climbing performance of the BE55 made it impossible to climb at a sufficient rate to safely get above the mia. Fresno approach shipped BE55 to sector 16 with BE55 in an unsafe rate of climb into high terrain. He was flying into the side of the sierra nevada mountain range. The sector 16 controller had to vector and then spin BE55 in fresno approach airspace to avoid the terrain. To avoid this type of unsafe situation in the future I recommend that fresno approach learn how high the terrain is which is adjacent to their airspace. They should also become familiar with ZOA's mias for those areas and be able to identify a poor climbing aircraft that is routed through those high terrain areas.
Original NASA ASRS Text
Title: ZOA Center Controller was handed off an aircraft from FAT TRACON climbing to an altitude below the Minimum IFR Altitude along its route.
Narrative: BE55 filed an IFR altitude of 12;000 feet which was not appropriate for his route. The lowest IFR altitude that is appropriate for his route of flight is 17;000 feet. Fresno Approach attempted to hand him off to ZOA Sector 16 climbing into high terrain which is adjacent to their airspace. The sector 16 controller called Fresno Approach to try to resolve the unsafe situation by providing them an altitude to climb above the Minimum IFR Altitude (MIA) and a time restriction to make sure that the aircraft could get above the MIA. The poor climbing performance of the BE55 made it impossible to climb at a sufficient rate to safely get above the MIA. Fresno Approach shipped BE55 to sector 16 with BE55 in an unsafe rate of climb into high terrain. He was flying into the side of the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range. The sector 16 controller had to vector and then spin BE55 in Fresno Approach airspace to avoid the terrain. To avoid this type of unsafe situation in the future I recommend that Fresno Approach learn how high the terrain is which is adjacent to their airspace. They should also become familiar with ZOA's MIAs for those areas and be able to identify a poor climbing aircraft that is routed through those high terrain areas.
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.