Narrative:

Aircraft climbed northbound off ols until I took the handoff from U90. After I took the handoff; U90 turned the aircraft southbound and shipped the aircraft to my frequency. I issued direct vylla J92 hmo then as filed and climbed the aircraft to FL210 as required to go south into mzt center. The aircraft was climbing at a rate that it required a point out to hmo approach. Both U90 and I tried to call hmo approach on the landline with no success multiple times. I tried to call hmo approach from the commercial phone line with every phone number we have with no success. I tried to have mzt center have hmo approach call me but they never called. As the aircraft approached vylla I decided that rather than delay the aircraft for ten minutes to climb in holding above FL190 that I would let the aircraft climb on course because there was no visible traffic south of vylla. Hmo approach does not have radar at vylla anyway and usually when they do answer the call they just say 'roger the traffic' and don't accept a point-out per USA procedures. There is also no way for the aircraft to contact hmo approach until they are 50 miles north of hmo. The LOA with hmo approach doesn't specify active times; so I am not even sure if they were open. I recommend that if hmo approach is not a 24 hour facility that we have that information available. I would also recommend that if this procedure is to work that one of the methods to contact hmo approach be available. The commercial phone calls and the landline calls terminated after several minutes with no answer. The language barrier with the mzt center controller was evident and I'm not sure if he knew exactly what I needed from him when we hung up the line. Standard phraseology from the mzt and hmo controllers would help to eliminate confusion on both ends. It seems wasteful to delay an aircraft at the us/mexican boundary because of bad phone numbers or miscommunication.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: ZAB Controller reported inability to coordinate with HMO Approach despite trying several methods; citing language barriers and lack of workable procedures.

Narrative: Aircraft climbed northbound off OLS until I took the handoff from U90. After I took the handoff; U90 turned the aircraft southbound and shipped the aircraft to my frequency. I issued direct VYLLA J92 HMO then as filed and climbed the aircraft to FL210 as required to go south into MZT Center. The aircraft was climbing at a rate that it required a point out to HMO Approach. Both U90 and I tried to call HMO Approach on the landline with no success multiple times. I tried to call HMO Approach from the commercial phone line with every phone number we have with no success. I tried to have MZT Center have HMO Approach call me but they never called. As the aircraft approached VYLLA I decided that rather than delay the aircraft for ten minutes to climb in holding above FL190 that I would let the aircraft climb on course because there was no visible traffic south of VYLLA. HMO Approach does not have radar at VYLLA anyway and usually when they do answer the call they just say 'roger the traffic' and don't accept a point-out per USA procedures. There is also no way for the aircraft to contact HMO Approach until they are 50 miles north of HMO. The LOA with HMO Approach doesn't specify active times; so I am not even sure if they were open. I recommend that if HMO Approach is not a 24 hour facility that we have that information available. I would also recommend that if this procedure is to work that one of the methods to contact HMO Approach be available. The commercial phone calls and the landline calls terminated after several minutes with no answer. The language barrier with the MZT Center Controller was evident and I'm not sure if he knew exactly what I needed from him when we hung up the line. Standard phraseology from the MZT and HMO Controllers would help to eliminate confusion on both ends. It seems wasteful to delay an aircraft at the US/Mexican boundary because of bad phone numbers or miscommunication.

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.