Narrative:

I entered the area with my d-side trainee. We were informed that there was an emergency in the sector we were about to train on so we hurried to get in. Due to low traffic; the r-side did not request a d-side; but with the emergency situation we jumped in quickly. The r-side was informing us of the situation as we fumbled to get our headsets on and plugged in. He has already ran the emergency checklist; pointed the aircraft out to approach control and forwarded necessary information [to] the next approach controller who would be accepting the aircraft. As we were about to call for a brief; the aircraft requested descent to 5;000 feet; the r-side quickly re-coordinated the point out and apreqed (approval request) the descent. The r-side then responded to aircraft that were checking on frequency while he coordinated and the aircraft then again asked for a descent to 3;000ft. I told my d-side to make the call now. The r-side was aware that the emergency was a divert to an airport with better weather due to anti-icing issues on the aircraft so he gave the emergency aircraft the clearance they requested. My trainee then referenced the point out descending to 3;000 and the controller sounded confused. In order to make sure there was no confusion I keyed over my trainee to ask if there are any msas in the area that we should be aware of. The controller assured us 3;000 is the mia. We then called the next approach controller to apreq the aircraft descending to 3;000 feet which was approved. We shipped and dropped the aircraft as deadwood. When time allowed; I looked at maps and realized there is an mia of 3;100 feet in that area. The r-side pulled up the data block and we observed the aircraft level at 3;100 feet. We are unaware if the aircraft went below and climbed; or if they were leveled prior by approach control. Our airspace goes down to 11;000 feet at the lowest. We are not aware of meas/mias/mvas/msas/mocas or any other minimum altitudes other than 11;000 feet. For situations like this; I think it is important to be aware. I will be aware in the future and encourage my trainees and fellow area controllers to be aware.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: ZAU Instructor and developmental reported descending an aircraft 100 feet below the MIA.

Narrative: I entered the area with my D-side trainee. We were informed that there was an emergency in the sector we were about to train on so we hurried to get in. Due to low traffic; the R-side did not request a D-side; but with the emergency situation we jumped in quickly. The R-side was informing us of the situation as we fumbled to get our headsets on and plugged in. He has already ran the emergency checklist; pointed the aircraft out to Approach Control and forwarded necessary information [to] the next Approach Controller who would be accepting the aircraft. As we were about to call for a brief; the aircraft requested descent to 5;000 feet; the R-side quickly re-coordinated the point out and apreqed (Approval Request) the descent. The R-side then responded to aircraft that were checking on frequency while he coordinated and the aircraft then again asked for a descent to 3;000ft. I told my D-side to make the call now. The R-side was aware that the emergency was a divert to an airport with better weather due to anti-icing issues on the aircraft so he gave the emergency aircraft the clearance they requested. My trainee then referenced the point out descending to 3;000 and the controller sounded confused. In order to make sure there was no confusion I keyed over my trainee to ask if there are any MSAs in the area that we should be aware of. The controller assured us 3;000 is the MIA. We then called the next Approach Controller to APREQ the aircraft descending to 3;000 feet which was approved. We shipped and dropped the aircraft as deadwood. When time allowed; I looked at maps and realized there is an MIA of 3;100 feet in that area. The R-side pulled up the data block and we observed the aircraft level at 3;100 feet. We are unaware if the aircraft went below and climbed; or if they were leveled prior by Approach Control. Our airspace goes down to 11;000 feet at the lowest. We are not aware of MEAs/MIAs/MVAs/MSAs/MOCAs or any other minimum altitudes other than 11;000 feet. For situations like this; I think it is important to be aware. I will be aware in the future and encourage my trainees and fellow area controllers to be aware.

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.