Narrative:

We staff the bfi final monitor position when plan a is not available. The responsibility of the monitor position is to advise the sea final controller of any unplanned missed approach at bfi. The thought is that the monitor will tell the sea final controller; who will then break out any aircraft on the sea final that might be impacted by the bfi go-around. I believe that this is a near-mid-air collision; or worse; waiting to happen. Due to the chain of communication that exists between the monitor and the final controller; I do not believe that there is sufficient time to react when a bfi arrival executes a go-around. Having experienced busy sea final sessions; I know that I am often so focused on my traffic; that I completely miss if someone talks to me. For example; if another controller or observer walks into my field of vision to coordinate something without waiting for a break in my traffic; I often don't fully catch what they say the first time. I foresee that this same situation will occur in a worst case scenario; when the sea final controller if very busy; and there is an unplanned missed approach at bfi. The monitor should have the ability and requirement to over-key the sea final frequency in order to break-out affected aircraft. Instead of having the monitor position be something of a formality to be certified on; we can wait until the end of training to certify a controller on the position. That way they can know how to properly respond to this situation.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: SEA TRACON Controller reported the procedure to protect a missed approach at one airport from arrivals to an adjacent airport is unsafe.

Narrative: We staff the BFI final monitor position when Plan A is not available. The responsibility of the Monitor position is to advise the SEA Final controller of any unplanned missed approach at BFI. The thought is that the monitor will tell the SEA Final controller; who will then break out any aircraft on the SEA final that might be impacted by the BFI go-around. I believe that this is a near-mid-air collision; or worse; waiting to happen. Due to the chain of communication that exists between the Monitor and the Final controller; I do not believe that there is sufficient time to react when a BFI arrival executes a go-around. Having experienced busy SEA Final sessions; I know that I am often so focused on my traffic; that I completely miss if someone talks to me. For example; if another controller or observer walks into my field of vision to coordinate something without waiting for a break in my traffic; I often don't fully catch what they say the first time. I foresee that this same situation will occur in a worst case scenario; when the SEA Final controller if very busy; and there is an unplanned missed approach at BFI. The Monitor should have the ability and requirement to over-key the SEA Final frequency in order to break-out affected aircraft. Instead of having the Monitor position be something of a formality to be certified on; we can wait until the end of training to certify a controller on the position. That way they can know how to properly respond to this situation.

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.