ARTCC controller reported accidentally removing the flight plan of an active aircraft; and not follo...

Narrative:

Aircraft X called from the ground at ZZZ1 for a squawk and said he'll be departing VFR to pick up his clearance in the air. A few minutes later he departed; called and was told to identify. He was identified; and cleared IFR to FL240; with clearance to deviate around weather. He was given direct when clear of the weather and proceeded on course. A few minutes later; I inadvertently removed the flight plan from the system; intending to remove an arrival for a nearby airport.when I did this; I realized that the aircraft Y did not drop off and I removed aircraft Y's flight plan. I immediately began a scan; looking for limited data blocks. I did not see the limited data block on aircraft X.aircraft X proceeded to fly through sector ab and into sector de; without a data block and frequency changes.sector fg did close in or near the timeframe of the incident; but I'm not sure if it was before or after the rs message.although I am very cautious about the removal of flight plans; apparently I was not cautious enough. And even though; I did realize the rs was possibly done in error; I did not look into it enough to find the mistake.one; be more careful on rs messages. Two; if I do mess it up; look a the cid of the flight plan that was removed using the recall key on the keyboard.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: ARTCC Controller reported accidentally removing the flight plan of an active aircraft; and not following up sufficiently to find the aircraft. As a result the aircraft transited additional sectors without appropriate coordination.

Narrative: Aircraft X called from the ground at ZZZ1 for a squawk and said he'll be departing VFR to pick up his clearance in the air. A few minutes later he departed; called and was told to IDENT. He was identified; and cleared IFR to FL240; with clearance to deviate around weather. He was given direct when clear of the weather and proceeded on course. A few minutes later; I inadvertently removed the flight plan from the system; intending to remove an arrival for a nearby airport.When I did this; I realized that the Aircraft Y did not drop off and I removed Aircraft Y's flight plan. I immediately began a scan; looking for limited data blocks. I did not see the limited data block on Aircraft X.Aircraft X proceeded to fly through Sector AB and into Sector DE; without a data block and frequency changes.Sector FG did close in or near the timeframe of the incident; but I'm not sure if it was before or after the RS message.Although I am very cautious about the removal of flight plans; apparently I was not cautious enough. And even though; I did realize the RS was possibly done in error; I did not look into it enough to find the mistake.One; be more careful on RS messages. Two; if I do mess it up; look a the CID of the flight plan that was removed using the recall key on the keyboard.

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.

Attributes
ACN	912770
Time
Date	201010
Local Time Of Day	0001-0600
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.ARTCC
State Reference	US
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Turbo Commander 900 (Jetprop)
Flight Phase	Initial Climb
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Qualification	Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Airspace Violation All Types Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy

ARTCC controller reported accidentally removing the flight plan of an active aircraft; and not following up sufficiently to find the aircraft. As a result the aircraft transited additional sectors without appropriate coordination.