Narrative:

I was working all of bay 5 combined at sector 60 (montebello). There was weather in my airspace as well as in ZID sectors 96 and 86 airspace. All of the I86/I96 eastbound traffic was deviating into my airspace. There was no en-trail on any of the aircraft entering my airspace coming from ZID. All of the traffic was deviating without any real tie downs as far distance off course or trying to keep the aircraft on fixes that would keep them clear of weather so aircraft were deviating all over the place. In addition; the clt flow was being destroyed by bad releases off the ground underneath other arrivals; and then was being t-boned by arrivals coming from the northwest that we usually do not see. Once again there was no en-trail or anything done to alleviate the complexity of the sector. There was no spacing of any traffic entering the sector from pct or other ZDC sectors. No manager on the overnight shift ever came down to monitor the amount of traffic being worked by the sector or the complexity of the situation. There were no restrictions issued by tmu (traffic management) to keep the sector from being becoming overloaded by airplanes. I was in a situation where it was too busy to try and call a manager to page back someone for help because they were at the watch desk. I had little to no time to answer land line calls. When the day shift person came in to relieve me; it was almost too busy to give up the sector and that controller also found himself in a position where he was too busy to split out the sectors.I think when there is weather; the overnight supervisor should at least walk down to the areas and make sure that traffic is running smoothly and none of the areas are struggling to keep up. Tmu needs to be more effective at monitoring situations and issuing routes and en-trail that will prevent the overnight controllers from being overloaded by airplanes. It is unsafe to be that busy with no help. Even when there is no weather; traffic starts to increase prior to when the day shift controllers arrive so there needs to be plans in place to manage the traffic flow better until the day shift controllers can arrive and open up sectors. It seems to be getting to the point where we might benefit from starting the day shift [earlier].

Related reports:

Google
 

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: ZDC Center Controller reported being inundated with traffic at the end of a mid-shift due to weather and no help from anyone.

Narrative: I was working all of Bay 5 combined at Sector 60 (Montebello). There was weather in my airspace as well as in ZID Sectors 96 and 86 airspace. All of the I86/I96 eastbound traffic was deviating into my airspace. There was no en-trail on any of the aircraft entering my airspace coming from ZID. All of the traffic was deviating without any real tie downs as far distance off course or trying to keep the aircraft on fixes that would keep them clear of weather so aircraft were deviating all over the place. In addition; the CLT flow was being destroyed by bad releases off the ground underneath other arrivals; and then was being t-boned by arrivals coming from the northwest that we usually do not see. Once again there was no en-trail or anything done to alleviate the complexity of the sector. There was no spacing of any traffic entering the sector from PCT or other ZDC sectors. No manager on the overnight shift ever came down to monitor the amount of traffic being worked by the Sector or the complexity of the situation. There were no restrictions issued by TMU (Traffic Management) to keep the sector from being becoming overloaded by airplanes. I was in a situation where it was too busy to try and call a manager to page back someone for help because they were at the watch desk. I had little to no time to answer land line calls. When the day shift person came in to relieve me; it was almost too busy to give up the sector and that controller also found himself in a position where he was too busy to split out the sectors.I think when there is weather; the overnight Supervisor should at least walk down to the areas and make sure that traffic is running smoothly and none of the areas are struggling to keep up. TMU needs to be more effective at monitoring situations and issuing routes and en-trail that will prevent the overnight Controllers from being overloaded by airplanes. It is unsafe to be that busy with no help. Even when there is no weather; traffic starts to increase prior to when the day shift Controllers arrive so there needs to be plans in place to manage the traffic flow better until the day shift Controllers can arrive and open up sectors. It seems to be getting to the point where we might benefit from starting the day shift [earlier].

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.