Narrative:

I was briefed about the turbulence and chop in the sector; most notably that there had been severe turbulence reported in the north part of the sector. Aircraft X was in level flight at 20000 feet. After the fact; I cannot remember if weather had been called to the flight. There had not previously been any reports of severe turbulence in that area. I noticed that the flight was descending and questioned them. At this point a female; I had previously been in communication with a male pilot; came on frequency screaming. I believe that she was unfamiliar with the microphone and held it down hot so I couldn't talk back to her. Once she unkeyed the microphone I tried to calm her down and see if she could tell me anything that they needed.during this time I watched the flight rapidly lose altitude. By the time the pilot had stabilized the aircraft they were at 10;000 feet. I asked the pilot (now the male was back on frequency) what had happened and he replied that they hit severe turbulence which disengaged the autopilot and caused the plane to begin to roll. That was when he tried to take back control of the aircraft. As soon as I said I had [the aircraft in distress] the supervisor put a controller on my assist position. The supervisor also found someone who was a pilot to come over from another area in case we needed to assist someone to fly the plane; but we did not end up needing them. The pilot later called and let us know that no one on the flight was hurt; nor was the airplane damaged. My assist after the event had offered to take over the position so I could take a break but I declined. I was never asked by management if I needed to get off of position. After the event I had to stay on position for an hour and a half before I was actually up for and offered a break. During this time traffic management unit (tmu) continued to depart aircraft right through the area where the severe turbulence event happened. I voiced my concern to the supervisor; letting him know that I felt it was unsafe to have aircraft flying through that area. He then called either the watch desk; or tmu; I'm not sure; to tell them to stop or reroute these aircraft and then came back to me with their response of no they will not stop and 'just call the weather.'I think that it should be absolutely unacceptable that a controller is told by tmu; or anyone else for that matter; that they will not stop departing traffic into known severe turbulence; nor would they try to reroute them around it. I feel that it is completely unsafe and putting lives in danger. There has to be some sort of protocol that when there is known severe turbulence no one has to fly through it again. I also think that it is important not only to brief controllers to call the weather that is depicted to traffic; but to teach them what the difference is between chop and turbulence. After going through this event and experiencing bad rides throughout the entire night; it was made known to me that most of my coworkers were not aware that there was a difference at all.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: ZDC Center controllers reported a pilot lost control of their aircraft in severe turbulence other aircraft were still allowed to fly through the area.

Narrative: I was briefed about the turbulence and chop in the sector; most notably that there had been severe turbulence reported in the north part of the sector. Aircraft X was in level flight at 20000 feet. After the fact; I cannot remember if weather had been called to the flight. There had not previously been any reports of severe turbulence in that area. I noticed that the flight was descending and questioned them. At this point a female; I had previously been in communication with a male pilot; came on frequency screaming. I believe that she was unfamiliar with the microphone and held it down hot so I couldn't talk back to her. Once she unkeyed the microphone I tried to calm her down and see if she could tell me anything that they needed.During this time I watched the flight rapidly lose altitude. By the time the pilot had stabilized the aircraft they were at 10;000 feet. I asked the pilot (now the male was back on frequency) what had happened and he replied that they hit severe turbulence which disengaged the autopilot and caused the plane to begin to roll. That was when he tried to take back control of the aircraft. As soon as I said I had [the aircraft in distress] the Supervisor put a controller on my Assist position. The Supervisor also found someone who was a pilot to come over from another area in case we needed to assist someone to fly the plane; but we did not end up needing them. The pilot later called and let us know that no one on the flight was hurt; nor was the airplane damaged. My Assist after the event had offered to take over the position so I could take a break but I declined. I was never asked by management if I needed to get off of position. After the event I had to stay on position for an hour and a half before I was actually up for and offered a break. During this time Traffic Management Unit (TMU) continued to depart aircraft right through the area where the severe turbulence event happened. I voiced my concern to the Supervisor; letting him know that I felt it was unsafe to have aircraft flying through that area. He then called either the watch desk; or TMU; I'm not sure; to tell them to stop or reroute these aircraft and then came back to me with their response of no they will not stop and 'just call the weather.'I think that it should be absolutely unacceptable that a controller is told by TMU; or anyone else for that matter; that they will not stop departing traffic into known severe turbulence; nor would they try to reroute them around it. I feel that it is completely unsafe and putting lives in danger. There has to be some sort of protocol that when there is known severe turbulence no one has to fly through it again. I also think that it is important not only to brief controllers to call the weather that is depicted to traffic; but to teach them what the difference is between chop and turbulence. After going through this event and experiencing bad rides throughout the entire night; it was made known to me that most of my coworkers were not aware that there was a difference at all.

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.