Narrative:

Moderate traffic mid morning; sometimes it gets busy. I was conducting training. There were a couple of military aircraft that came in IFR for practice approaches but were really not a problem; spaced out between traffic. There was an aircraft northbound; westbound; and eastbound; within 40 miles of ZZZ airport; my trainee gave different altitudes to these aircraft so they were not a factor for each other. Aircraft X called up off ZZZ airport; and stated that he was going to be doing parachute operations. We knew he was coming out; because the supervisor had told us an aircraft would depart for jumping operations. I'm not sure when aircraft Y called the first time; but he was given a squawk code; and later radar contact was taken on the aircraft when he announced 5 minutes to jump. A few minutes later he called jumpers away. The trainee looked; and saw traffic westbound; that was travelling in the direction of aircraft Y; and he called traffic; which we were not sure they heard; and then he called traffic again. He called traffic; and the plane responded that he was broadcasting; but no one was answering. My understanding of the 7110.65; is that if there is 'known traffic' we are required to give them the information of the parachute jumping operation. If it is traffic that we are not talking to there is no requirement for us to broadcast about the jumping activity like there is for fuel dumping. I'm not sure if there was a NOTAM put out for parachute jumping; or if there is a requirement for one to be put out but our sector does not normally talk to aircraft east of ZZZ because radio and radar coverage is so poor in that area. This could very well have been a life threatening accident; with the aircraft flying below the area where jumping is in progress; so whether a NOTAM should be put out for aircraft to avoid the area; or we should be equipped with better radar in the area; and better frequency reception in the area; so we could have seen the traffic earlier; and made a broadcast.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A TRACON Controller reported observing an unidentified VFR aircraft fly through an area of parachute jumping operations.

Narrative: Moderate traffic mid morning; sometimes it gets busy. I was conducting training. There were a couple of military aircraft that came in IFR for practice approaches but were really not a problem; spaced out between traffic. There was an aircraft northbound; westbound; and eastbound; within 40 miles of ZZZ airport; my trainee gave different altitudes to these aircraft so they were not a factor for each other. Aircraft X called up off ZZZ airport; and stated that he was going to be doing parachute operations. We knew he was coming out; because the supervisor had told us an aircraft would depart for jumping operations. I'm not sure when Aircraft Y called the first time; but he was given a squawk code; and later radar contact was taken on the aircraft when he announced 5 minutes to jump. A few minutes later he called jumpers away. The trainee looked; and saw traffic westbound; that was travelling in the direction of Aircraft Y; and he called traffic; which we were not sure they heard; and then he called traffic again. He called traffic; and the plane responded that he was broadcasting; but no one was answering. My understanding of the 7110.65; is that if there is 'known traffic' we are required to give them the information of the parachute jumping operation. If it is traffic that we are not talking to there is no requirement for us to broadcast about the jumping activity like there is for fuel dumping. I'm not sure if there was a NOTAM put out for parachute jumping; or if there is a requirement for one to be put out but our sector does not normally talk to aircraft east of ZZZ because radio and radar coverage is so poor in that area. This could very well have been a life threatening accident; with the aircraft flying below the area where jumping is in progress; so whether a NOTAM should be put out for aircraft to avoid the area; or we should be equipped with better radar in the area; and better frequency reception in the area; so we could have seen the traffic earlier; and made a broadcast.

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.