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ZDC controller described sector closing temporarily as a result of lack of staffing; user impacts reported.
| Attributes | |
| ACN | 840038 |
| Time | |
| Date | 200906 |
| Local Time Of Day | ZZZ |
| Place | |
| Locale Reference | ZDC.ARTCC |
| State Reference | VA |
| Environment | |
| Flight Conditions | Mixed |
| Light | Daylight |
| Aircraft 1 | |
| Make Model Name | No Aircraft |
| Person 1 | |
| Qualification | Air Traffic Control Fully Certified |
| Experience | Air Traffic Control Military 4 Air Traffic Control Radar 7 Air Traffic Control Time Certified In Pos 1 (mon) 0 Air Traffic Control Time Certified In Pos 1 (yrs) 2 |
| Events | |
| Anomaly | ATC Issue All Types Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy |
Narrative:
One evening in june; the washington air route traffic control center (ARTCC) was forced to close two enroute air traffic control sectors in the vicinity of the raleigh/durham international airport (rdu). The two sectors; sampson (26) and rocky mount (28) own the airspace east of rdu at and below FL230. The closure; from xa:25 to approximately xb:00; impacted rdu eastbound departures who were delayed for an hour. Those flights already airborne were forced to be re-routed. This was all due to the fact that only one controller certified to work that airspace was working that evening. This controller was forced to work four consecutive hours with no relief; and when the relief finally came; it was in the form of shutting down airspace. This entire episode is a symptom of ongoing staffing problems at the washington ARTCC; this is clearly an unsafe practice that needs to be addressed.
Original NASA ASRS Text
Title: ZDC Controller described sector closing temporarily as a result of lack of staffing; user impacts reported.
Narrative: One evening in June; the Washington Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC) was forced to close two enroute air traffic control sectors in the vicinity of the Raleigh/Durham International Airport (RDU). The two sectors; Sampson (26) and Rocky Mount (28) own the airspace east of RDU at and below FL230. The closure; from XA:25 to approximately XB:00; impacted RDU eastbound departures who were delayed for an hour. Those flights already airborne were forced to be re-routed. This was all due to the fact that only one controller certified to work that airspace was working that evening. This controller was forced to work four consecutive hours with no relief; and when the relief finally came; it was in the form of shutting down airspace. This entire episode is a symptom of ongoing staffing problems at the Washington ARTCC; this is clearly an unsafe practice that needs to be addressed.
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.