Narrative:

I had the end of a line of weather in my sector that aircraft were deviating around. Air carrier X was climbing east out of cvg and asked to deviate north around the weather (climbing slowly to FL280). Air carrier Y was at FL280 from the southeast deviating around the weather northwest bound to mli. Traffic was light when we started splitting out the super high sector but as we were giving the briefing; the frequency got congested and it took longer than anticipated to finish the split. The radar person at the super high sector took all the hand offs from other sectors and all of those airplanes were calling on during the briefing; asking questions about rides & weather. During that distraction; air carrier X changed his mind and asked to deviate south of the weather and made a 90 degree turn to the south; still climbing to FL280. As we were finishing the briefing; air carrier Y said he was turning back on course and the two aircraft came within 2.37 miles of each other. Due to the distractions from the split; I didn't realize those two were getting so close and when conflict alert activated; air carrier X showed out of FL267 so I amended his altitude to FL270; assuming he was still climbing so slowly; I didn't think he'd go through FL270. He said he was already through it and asked if I wanted him to descend; which I said yes to; of course. The next few hits showed him at FL270; 272; 274 then back down. Aedp (automated error detection program) didn't go off. The final closest proximity was 2.37 miles and 600 ft. Obviously; I should have noticed that the two were going to deviate to the same spot and not climbed one to the other's altitude. The super high should have been split out sooner or not at all. It is distracting to split a sector and my attention was mostly on the split. The controller taking the super high took many hand offs from other sectors and all those aircraft were calling on during the split; making it take way too long.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: ZID controller described a loss of separation event occurring during a sector split period with numerous diverting around weather and congesting the frequency with weather information requests.

Narrative: I had the end of a line of weather in my sector that aircraft were deviating around. Air Carrier X was climbing east out of CVG and asked to deviate north around the weather (climbing slowly to FL280). Air Carrier Y was at FL280 from the southeast deviating around the weather northwest bound to MLI. Traffic was light when we started splitting out the Super High Sector but as we were giving the briefing; the frequency got congested and it took longer than anticipated to finish the split. The RADAR person at the Super High Sector took all the hand offs from other sectors and all of those airplanes were calling on during the briefing; asking questions about rides & weather. During that distraction; Air Carrier X changed his mind and asked to deviate south of the weather and made a 90 degree turn to the south; still climbing to FL280. As we were finishing the briefing; Air Carrier Y said he was turning back on course and the two aircraft came within 2.37 miles of each other. Due to the distractions from the split; I didn't realize those two were getting so close and when conflict alert activated; Air Carrier X showed out of FL267 so I amended his altitude to FL270; assuming he was still climbing so slowly; I didn't think he'd go through FL270. He said he was already through it and asked if I wanted him to descend; which I said yes to; of course. The next few hits showed him at FL270; 272; 274 then back down. AEDP (Automated Error Detection Program) didn't go off. The final closest proximity was 2.37 miles and 600 ft. Obviously; I should have noticed that the two were going to deviate to the same spot and not climbed one to the other's altitude. The Super High should have been split out sooner or not at all. It is distracting to split a sector and my attention was mostly on the split. The Controller taking the Super High took many hand offs from other sectors and all those aircraft were calling on during the split; making it take way too long.

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.