Narrative:

Aircraft X was cleared from eos direct fsm. On departure my trainee gave the plane a heading of 270 for traffic; climbing to FL190. At about FL180 the aircraft was cleared direct fsm. A hand off was initiated by pressing 'M' (for memphis). I was unaware that the data block was flashing at rzc approach. Although rzc approach only has airspace at or below one five thousand; they took the hand off. The plane's communications was changed over to ZME. I noticed the hand off was not made to ZME right before the plane reached the boundary. I called ZME. I asked if they had a hand off on aircraft X. They said it was taken care of. The sector was manned by a trainee; myself (instructor) and a newly checked out d-side only. There has been an on going problem with hand offs going to rzc approach instead of ZME; with aircraft climbing above approach airspace. It is something one has to be aware of. Although I gave it some thought when we departed the plane from eos; it got by me when it counted. I would like to see aircraft that file an altitude above rzc approach have an automated hand off go to ZME instead of approach. I also have to question why rzc approach would accept a hand off on an aircraft that is not in their altitudes. They had no reason to believe that aircraft was going to enter their airspace.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A ZKC controller described a confused hand off event when RZC TRACON accepted a hand off initiated and planned for ZME. The reporter noted directed automated hand off procedures need to be changed in the facility software.

Narrative: Aircraft X was cleared from EOS direct FSM. On departure my trainee gave the plane a heading of 270 for traffic; climbing to FL190. At about FL180 the aircraft was cleared direct FSM. A hand off was initiated by pressing 'M' (for Memphis). I was unaware that the data block was flashing at RZC Approach. Although RZC Approach only has airspace at or below one five thousand; they took the hand off. The plane's communications was changed over to ZME. I noticed the hand off was not made to ZME right before the plane reached the boundary. I called ZME. I asked if they had a hand off on Aircraft X. They said it was taken care of. The sector was manned by a trainee; myself (instructor) and a newly checked out D-side only. There has been an on going problem with hand offs going to RZC Approach instead of ZME; with aircraft climbing above approach airspace. It is something one has to be aware of. Although I gave it some thought when we departed the plane from EOS; it got by me when it counted. I would like to see aircraft that file an altitude above RZC Approach have an automated hand off go to ZME instead of approach. I also have to question why RZC Approach would accept a hand off on an aircraft that is not in their altitudes. They had no reason to believe that aircraft was going to enter their airspace.

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.