Center radar controllers reported an aircraft was allowed to fly through a hot restricted area that ...

Narrative:

I took the sector while training was occurring on the radar position. I was briefed that this plane was going to conflict with someone descending into spokane and that the alerts for the entire flight plans involved were muted so we could see if the trainee would catch it. I assumed that the issue was the red alert potential of a landing aircraft. When the radar trainee caught this I assumed that the tasks related to the aircraft were fulfilled according to my briefing; seeing no color any longer on the en-route decision support tool (edst).shortly after taking sector; we became very busy; up to the point of a red sector. We had two deviations and I was offline for tmu(trafic management unit) coordination; two tower releases; and several transmissions with TRACON. The business got out of hand with the weather and the radar controller was way behind the flick. I attempted to work with TRACON to help out and to scan for anyone that might be going to the weather; since it was getting worse. All the while the orange alert was still muted.as we got busier; we went to vtabs (backup landline system) with literally one minute of warning. As we switched over and increased the workload; we realized the volumes were all too low to hear us being called on the shoutlines. As this was being fixed; an aircraft entered the firing center of a restricted area. We went back to attending to the weather and climbers/descenders and the radar controller trainee got back on track. I gave a briefing in the middle and realized at the end the aircraft was in the restricted area as I spoke of traffic.I recommend that we at least have a tracker on all red sectors; especially when weather deviations are involved. I almost called for a split; but we were far too deep into it by then for it to be effective. Split red sectors before they happen and add tracker when stuff really hits the fan. Also; we should never; ever mute alerts on an airplane regardless of the training benefit. Having taken the mutes I was less likely to remember an issue and it was an incomplete transition of situational awareness.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Center Radar controllers reported an aircraft was allowed to fly through a hot Restricted Area that the Assist controller had muted the warning system.

Narrative: I took the sector while training was occurring on the Radar position. I was briefed that this plane was going to conflict with someone descending into Spokane and that the alerts for the entire flight plans involved were muted so we could see if the trainee would catch it. I assumed that the issue was the red alert potential of a landing aircraft. When the Radar Trainee caught this I assumed that the tasks related to the aircraft were fulfilled according to my briefing; seeing no color any longer on the En-route Decision Support Tool (EDST).Shortly after taking sector; we became very busy; up to the point of a red sector. We had two deviations and I was offline for TMU(Trafic Management Unit) coordination; two Tower releases; and several transmissions with TRACON. The business got out of hand with the weather and the radar controller was way behind the flick. I attempted to work with TRACON to help out and to scan for anyone that might be going to the weather; since it was getting worse. All the while the orange alert was still muted.As we got busier; we went to VTABS (Backup landline system) with literally one minute of warning. As we switched over and increased the workload; we realized the volumes were all too low to hear us being called on the shoutlines. As this was being fixed; an aircraft entered the firing center of a Restricted Area. We went back to attending to the weather and climbers/descenders and the Radar Controller trainee got back on track. I gave a briefing in the middle and realized at the end the aircraft was in the Restricted Area as I spoke of traffic.I recommend that we at least have a tracker on all red sectors; especially when weather deviations are involved. I almost called for a split; but we were far too deep into it by then for it to be effective. Split red sectors before they happen and add tracker when stuff really hits the fan. Also; we should NEVER; EVER mute alerts on an airplane regardless of the training benefit. Having taken the mutes I was less likely to remember an issue and it was an incomplete transition of situational awareness.

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	1455155
Time
Date	201706
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ZSE.ARTCC
State Reference	WA
Environment
Flight Conditions	Marginal
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Commercial Fixed Wing
Flight Phase	Cruise
Route In Use	Direct
Flight Plan	IFR
Aircraft 2
Make Model Name	Commercial Fixed Wing
Flight Phase	Cruise
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Enroute Handoff / Assist
Qualification	Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Experience	Air Traffic Control Time Certified In Pos 1 (yrs) 1.5
Person 2
Function	Instructor Enroute
Qualification	Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Experience	Air Traffic Control Time Certified In Pos 1 (yrs) 10.0
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Airspace Violation All Types Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy

Center radar controllers reported an aircraft was allowed to fly through a hot restricted area that the assist controller had muted the warning system.