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TRACON controller described restricted airspace use after questionable coordination revealed airspace was not active; reporter indicated coordination procedures were less than adequate with possible negative user impacts.
| Attributes | |
| ACN | 839096 |
| Time | |
| Date | 200906 |
| Local Time Of Day | 0601-1200 |
| Place | |
| Locale Reference | FAI.Airport |
| State Reference | AK |
| Aircraft 1 | |
| Make Model Name | No Aircraft |
| Person 1 | |
| Function | Departure Approach |
| Qualification | Air Traffic Control Fully Certified |
| Experience | Air Traffic Control Radar 2.5 Air Traffic Control Time Certified In Pos 1 (mon) 7 Air Traffic Control Time Certified In Pos 1 (yrs) 1 Flight Crew Total 70 |
| Events | |
| Anomaly | Airspace Violation All Types Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy |
Narrative:
Working the entire TRACON with rcic. Restricted area was scheduled active. Upon taking the position my briefing indicated that the airspace was scheduled; but that no call had been received to activate it. I decided to determine whether the airspace would be utilized today or not. After attempting to contact range control via the etvs I contacted tower and asked them if they were aware of the status of range control. I was informed that to the tower's knowledge; range control was not in the buildings today and that they suspected the airspace was scheduled as a contingency were there any problems with doing the northern edge familiarization day yesterday. The tower was extremely helpful; offering to call around and find out for me if the airspace was going to be cold for the day or not ... Which they called back shortly thereafter to inform me that everyone they could get in touch with indicated the airspace would not be utilized and would be cold for the day. Upon hearing this; I treated it as such and made the appropriate coordination's. In retrospect; I am not entirely sure that I was correct in treating the airspace as cold for the day since I have no idea who the tower called to find out that information or whether that individual even has any authority in this regard. Problem: airspace was scheduled; possibly for a contingency situation; by an entity who was unavailable to confirm the actual utilization of the airspace during the time which it had been scheduled. This leads to ATC protecting airspace not being utilized and potentially re-routing aircraft needlessly. Pilots could potentially be desensitized to the airspace as well if airspace is scheduled active but they are unable to contact range control to confirm. Solution: the entity scheduling the airspace should be available for contact during times which they scheduled -and/or- the airspace scheduling should be canceled when the contingency is no longer necessary.
Original NASA ASRS Text
Title: TRACON Controller described restricted airspace use after questionable coordination revealed airspace was not active; reporter indicated coordination procedures were less than adequate with possible negative user impacts.
Narrative: Working the entire TRACON with RCIC. Restricted Area was scheduled active. Upon taking the position my briefing indicated that the airspace was scheduled; but that no call had been received to activate it. I decided to determine whether the airspace would be utilized today or not. After attempting to contact range control via the ETVS I contacted Tower and asked them if they were aware of the status of range control. I was informed that to the tower's knowledge; range control was not in the buildings today and that they suspected the airspace was scheduled as a contingency were there any problems with doing the northern edge familiarization day yesterday. The tower was extremely helpful; offering to call around and find out for me if the airspace was going to be cold for the day or not ... which they called back shortly thereafter to inform me that everyone they could get in touch with indicated the airspace would not be utilized and would be cold for the day. Upon hearing this; I treated it as such and made the appropriate coordination's. In retrospect; I am not entirely sure that I was correct in treating the airspace as cold for the day since I have no idea who the tower called to find out that information or whether that individual even has any authority in this regard. Problem: Airspace was scheduled; possibly for a contingency situation; by an entity who was unavailable to confirm the actual utilization of the airspace during the time which it had been scheduled. This leads to ATC protecting airspace not being utilized and potentially re-routing aircraft needlessly. Pilots could potentially be desensitized to the airspace as well if airspace is scheduled active but they are unable to contact range control to confirm. Solution: The entity scheduling the airspace should be available for contact during times which they scheduled -and/or- the airspace scheduling should be canceled when the contingency is no longer necessary.
Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.