Narrative:

I was made aware at approximately at XA25Z that restricted area 4401C was active and had been active since XW00Z. Prior to that time the entire specialty only thought that the portions of the restricted area that were active were a and B. A and B are FL180 and below. The 'C' portion of the restricted area is FL190-FL290. So for almost the entire time it was active no one was aware. Everyone in the specialty was under the belief that the restricted area was only active FL180 and below. At approximately XA25Z; a controller noticed that the 'C' portion was also active and had to give a very hard turn to an aircraft in an attempt to miss the restricted area. I don't believe he was able to keep the aircraft properly separated from the restricted area. After further investigation other controllers and myself were made aware that we also had had deviations with the restricted area earlier in the evening. Approximately a year ago a similar incident happened. Right now we only have the esis on the wall listing all of the military areas' schedules as well as in trail restriction and outages for the area. It would be very helpful to have a list at each sector that is sector specific as to the schedules for the military areas specific for that sector. Until about a year ago we had sector specific schedules at each sector and it was very helpful. Not only as an extra reminder at the sector; but it could be used as a cross reference with the esis. Our esis is very useful but it is so full of information that it is sometimes difficult to find what you need for your specific sector. Also; the uret system did not show the R4401C as being active. In my opinion; we have mac (military airspace coordination) personnel that should be responsible for putting all of the scheduled times into the uret. That is their job and they have been able to continually get away with not entering these times into the uret. It would have also been useful to have the uret indicator showing an alert.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: ZHU Controller described multiple airspace incursion events when restrictions regarding R4401 were either misunderstood or improperly noted at the control sectors.

Narrative: I was made aware at approximately at XA25Z that Restricted Area 4401C was active and had been active since XW00Z. Prior to that time the entire specialty only thought that the portions of the restricted area that were active were A and B. A and B are FL180 and below. The 'C' portion of the restricted area is FL190-FL290. So for almost the entire time it was active no one was aware. Everyone in the specialty was under the belief that the restricted area was only active FL180 and below. At approximately XA25Z; a Controller noticed that the 'C' portion was also active and had to give a very hard turn to an aircraft in an attempt to miss the restricted area. I don't believe he was able to keep the aircraft properly separated from the restricted area. After further investigation other controllers and myself were made aware that we also had had deviations with the restricted area earlier in the evening. Approximately a year ago a similar incident happened. Right now we only have the ESIS on the wall listing all of the military areas' schedules as well as in trail restriction and outages for the area. It would be very helpful to have a list at each sector that is sector specific as to the schedules for the military areas specific for that sector. Until about a year ago we had sector specific schedules at each sector and it was very helpful. Not only as an extra reminder at the sector; but it could be used as a cross reference with the ESIS. Our ESIS is very useful but it is so full of information that it is sometimes difficult to find what you need for your specific sector. Also; the URET system did not show the R4401C as being active. In my opinion; we have MAC (Military Airspace Coordination) personnel that should be responsible for putting all of the scheduled times into the URET. That is their job and they have been able to continually get away with not entering these times into the URET. It would have also been useful to have the URET indicator showing an alert.

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.