Narrative:

Apf [naples municipal airport] released an IFR departure when the flight plan had timed out. I was vectoring the aircraft around the field in order to have enough time to have the flm (frontline manager) call ZMA to reenter the flight plan. At the time I had approximately 7 arrivals with different aircraft characteristics. I cleared aircraft X for visual approach and had aircraft Y sequenced to be number 2. I was trying to deal with the inability of the flm and another person to get the correct flight plan in. I glanced down and observed aircraft Y pass aircraft X laterally. Being that aircraft X was a faster jet; I falsely felt secure in clearing aircraft Y for the visual. When I looked down again; aircraft Y cut the base tight and apf tower had decreased aircraft X to final approach speed; approximately 100 KIAS. I had aircraft Y follow aircraft X visual but at that time I'm not sure if the separation had already been lost. Apf has a very bad habit of reducing aircraft to the slowest practical speed. Thus disrupting our sequence. Also out staffing is so low the flm/controller in charge (controller in charge) is forced to combine with the data position for the whole TRACON majority of the time thus taking the eyes away from the operation. Apf carelessly let the aircraft go while the flight plan had timed out; thus taking my eyes and attention away from my task at hand separating aircraft. I as the controller mistakenly assumed that aircraft X would pull away from aircraft Y; thus providing more than sufficient separation. Our staffing and the behavior of this contract tower of slowing IFR arrivals down must be addressed.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: RSW TRACON Controller reported a loss of separation during an approach due to an uncoordinated speed adjustment by a tower controller.

Narrative: APF [Naples Municipal Airport] released an IFR departure when the flight plan had timed out. I was vectoring the aircraft around the field in order to have enough time to have the FLM (Frontline Manager) call ZMA to reenter the flight plan. At the time I had approximately 7 arrivals with different aircraft characteristics. I cleared Aircraft X for visual approach and had Aircraft Y sequenced to be number 2. I was trying to deal with the inability of the FLM and another person to get the correct flight plan in. I glanced down and observed Aircraft Y pass Aircraft X laterally. Being that Aircraft X was a faster jet; I falsely felt secure in clearing Aircraft Y for the visual. When I looked down again; Aircraft Y cut the base tight and APF tower had decreased Aircraft X to final approach speed; approximately 100 KIAS. I had Aircraft Y follow Aircraft X visual but at that time I'm not sure if the separation had already been lost. APF has a very bad habit of reducing aircraft to the slowest practical speed. Thus disrupting our sequence. Also out staffing is so low the FLM/CIC (Controller In Charge) is forced to combine with the data position for the whole TRACON majority of the time thus taking the eyes away from the operation. APF carelessly let the aircraft go while the flight plan had timed out; thus taking my eyes and attention away from my task at hand separating aircraft. I as the controller mistakenly assumed that Aircraft X would pull away from Aircraft Y; thus providing more than sufficient separation. Our staffing and the behavior of this contract tower of slowing IFR arrivals down must be addressed.

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.