Narrative:

First; I noticed aircraft X turning when he should not have been so I questioned and made sure they had saraa along their route of flight and they confirmed they did. I then assigned them 'heading 340; when able cleared direct saraa.' the pilot was still not doing it and I asked him to verify the spelling of saraa and they misspelled saraa into the FMS wrong. Don't know how this happened because I believe the pilot should have gotten the clearance off the ground via datalink and after the event occurred; the operations manager in charge (omic) confirmed that the clearance they were given on the ground was the correct spelling of saraa.the traffic volume was extremely busy at the time and sectors were not split out due to staffing and there were no restrictions put into place to help control the flow of traffic.I moved onto other stuff and then came back to aircraft X. I then noticed the aircraft went through 17;000; and the mode C read up to FL195. I questioned the pilot and said 'say altitude'. They came back and said they were correcting. I said 'say assigned altitude' and they said '17;000; the autopilot locked up'the aircraft was in the exact spot that iad arrivals descend to FL200 all day long and since the upper limits of my airspace ends at 17;000; I had no immediate knowledge of limited data blocks and asked the aircraft to descend immediately. The aircraft was in one of the most contested bottleneck areas of ZNY and he violated the worst altitude to be at and since I had zero knowledge of the iad traffic; I asked to the pilots to descend immediately.I informed the supervisor immediately and read the brasher warning.recommendation:1) pilot should have programmed the FMS correctly2) pilots should know how to work the auto-pilot3) sectors should have been split if we had the staffingorrestrictions should have been put in place (the omic constantly refuses to put in restrictions due to staffing). If we had the restrictions in place; the sector would have been more manageable and I might have had a fighting chance of stopping that aircraft earlier. If there was an iad arrival there; it would have been a midair collision and I would have had the opportunity to stop that aircraft sooner and potentially avoid that situation.granted it was a pilot deviation; the omics are not giving us the tools and opportunities to run our sectors safely and I feel the envelope keeps on getting pushed even more by refusing to put in restrictions. If you listen to the tapes; at times; the sector was not manageable.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: ZNY Center Controller reported a pilot deviated from the flight plan route and then climbed through the assigned altitude into another Center sector which the controller did not detect.

Narrative: First; I noticed Aircraft X turning when he should not have been so I questioned and made sure they had SARAA along their route of flight and they confirmed they did. I then assigned them 'heading 340; when able cleared direct SARAA.' The pilot was still not doing it and I asked him to verify the spelling of SARAA and they misspelled SARAA into the FMS wrong. Don't know how this happened because I believe the pilot should have gotten the clearance off the ground via datalink and after the event occurred; the Operations Manager in Charge (OMIC) confirmed that the clearance they were given on the ground was the correct spelling of SARAA.The traffic volume was extremely busy at the time and sectors were not split out due to staffing and there were no restrictions put into place to help control the flow of traffic.I moved onto other stuff and then came back to Aircraft X. I then noticed the aircraft went through 17;000; and the mode C read up to FL195. I questioned the pilot and said 'say altitude'. They came back and said they were correcting. I said 'say assigned Altitude' and they said '17;000; the autopilot locked up'The aircraft was in the exact spot that IAD arrivals descend to FL200 all day long and since the upper limits of my airspace ends at 17;000; I had no immediate knowledge of limited data blocks and asked the aircraft to descend immediately. The aircraft was in one of the most contested bottleneck areas of ZNY and he violated the worst altitude to be at and since I had zero knowledge of the IAD traffic; I asked to the pilots to descend immediately.I informed the Supervisor immediately and read the brasher warning.Recommendation:1) Pilot should have programmed the FMS correctly2) Pilots should know how to work the auto-pilot3) Sectors should have been split if we had the staffingorRestrictions should have been put in place (the OMIC constantly refuses to put in restrictions due to staffing). If we had the restrictions in place; the sector would have been more manageable and I might have had a fighting chance of stopping that aircraft earlier. If there was an IAD arrival there; it would have been a midair collision and I would have had the opportunity to stop that aircraft sooner and potentially avoid that situation.Granted it was a pilot deviation; the OMICs are not giving us the tools and opportunities to run our sectors safely and I feel the envelope keeps on getting pushed even more by refusing to put in restrictions. If you listen to the tapes; at times; the sector was not manageable.

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.