Narrative:

We were on the final portion of [our] flight; at 36;000 ft inbound to join the arrival to lima. In order to sequence another aircraft ahead of us; lima control instructed us to slow to .77 mach and fly heading 265. Shortly after complying; I informed lima that we would soon need a turn back on course for a no fly zone ahead. (No fly area NFA1 for depressurization contingencies). Lima instructed us to maintain heading. I repeated my concern but lima instructed us to switch to the next lima frequency. I immediately checked in with the next lima controller; stating that I needed a turn for the upcoming no fly area. Lima instructed to maintain heading. Since the other aircraft was now adjacent to us on the airway and a left turn might have put us in possible conflict with it; I immediately suggested to start a right turn to return to the airway. Lima responded to maintain heading 265 for 6 minutes to join another airway. Upon realizing that lima intended to take us through the no fly area; we simultaneously started an immediate right turn and announced 'pan; pan; pan. [We are] turning right. You are flying us into a no fly zone that we cannot do for our aircraft type'. The controller then replied; 'roger; turn right to 090'. During the turn; the controller gave us direct to a fix. Since this would have deleted altitude step downs on the arrival; I informed lima that we wanted to proceed to a different fix to join the arrival. Lima approved this. The arrival; approach and landing were subsequently completed without further incident. Suggestions include reminding lima control of certain aircraft's limitations from transiting the no fly zones. Also; have no fly zones printed on the stars to alleviate jumping from charts and apps in the ipad to cross check. Lastly; print reminder in the ops pages that no fly zones' boundaries can be placed in legs 2 of the FMC for HSI map display by inserting NFZ01 through NFZ08 for NFA1 and NFZ10 through NFZ15 or so for NFA2.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Air Carrier flight crew reported being vectored by Lima Control into a 'No Fly Zone.'

Narrative: We were on the final portion of [our] flight; at 36;000 ft inbound to join the arrival to Lima. In order to sequence another aircraft ahead of us; Lima Control instructed us to slow to .77 Mach and fly heading 265. Shortly after complying; I informed Lima that we would soon need a turn back on course for a No Fly Zone ahead. (No Fly Area NFA1 for depressurization contingencies). Lima instructed us to maintain heading. I repeated my concern but Lima instructed us to switch to the next Lima frequency. I immediately checked in with the next Lima controller; stating that I needed a turn for the upcoming No Fly Area. Lima instructed to maintain heading. Since the other aircraft was now adjacent to us on the airway and a left turn might have put us in possible conflict with it; I immediately suggested to start a right turn to return to the airway. Lima responded to maintain heading 265 for 6 minutes to join another airway. Upon realizing that Lima intended to take us through the No Fly Area; we simultaneously started an immediate right turn and announced 'PAN; PAN; PAN. [We are] turning right. You are flying us into a No Fly Zone that we cannot do for our aircraft type'. The controller then replied; 'Roger; turn right to 090'. During the turn; the controller gave us direct to a fix. Since this would have deleted altitude step downs on the arrival; I informed Lima that we wanted to proceed to a different fix to join the arrival. Lima approved this. The arrival; approach and landing were subsequently completed without further incident. Suggestions include reminding Lima Control of certain aircraft's limitations from transiting the No Fly Zones. Also; have No Fly Zones printed on the STARS to alleviate jumping from charts and apps in the iPad to cross check. Lastly; print reminder in the ops pages that No Fly Zones' boundaries can be placed in legs 2 of the FMC for HSI map display by inserting NFZ01 through NFZ08 for NFA1 and NFZ10 through NFZ15 or so for NFA2.

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.