Narrative:

I was working an A320 level at FL360 flying northbound at R86. I took a hand off from R17/85 on a B737 who was at FL370 and showing a descent to FL350. According to the SOP; the B737 must cross the boundary of R17/85 and R16/86 at FL350. When I took the hand off on the B737 I figured with 80 miles between the two aircraft the B737 should easily get underneath my A320; so I flashed through my B737 to R16 which is allowed according to our sops it is an approved automated information transfer (ait) procedure. R17/85 took the hand off on my A320 and did not notice the situation developing. I noticed soon after that the B737 was not starting down to FL350 and immediately assumed he was issued plyer at FL350 which is a common practice in the area but not a requirement. The requirement is to cross the boundary at FL350 and plyer is outside the boundary. As soon as I noticed I called D17/85 and asked if the B737 was issued plyer at FL350 and he said he was and that we should stop him at FL370. At that point I assumed he was still talking to the B737 and that he was told to maintain FL370. The aircraft had 15 or so miles between them at that point. I yelled across the room that I had assumed radar contact on the B737 and took track control of the aircraft. The aircraft was a few miles from plyer so I still assumed he was level at FL370 because he had not started down. I was still questioning who was talking to the aircraft so I yelled over to R17/85 asking them if they were talking to them and they said no; so I asked R16 to make sure the aircraft was stopped at FL370. R16 then asked the B737 if he was 'issued anything lower than that' and I believe the pilot at that point forgot he was issued the restriction and started down. R16 said no maintain FL370 and the pilot reported he was level at FL370 after showing a 500 foot drop. But it was too late to prevent an RA for the A320 and he started descended in response to a RA and notified me. I then noticed that there was P180 southbound at FL350 and told the A320 to continue descent to FL340 and turn 40 degrees right. I turned the P180 just 10 degrees right because the warning areas where hot off to his right. The A320 did not descend all the way to FL340; I believe the RA was telling him to climb. If he would have descended when I told him there would be no loss of separation but I believe the RA advisory confused the pilot. I recommend a standard crossing restriction for the rsw arrivals so that everyone is on the same page about altitude assignments.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: ZJX Controller described a loss of separation event when the altitude of crossing traffic was uncertain because of unclear crossing restrictions; compounded by Automated Information Transfer (AIT) procedures.

Narrative: I was working an A320 level at FL360 flying northbound at R86. I took a hand off from R17/85 on a B737 who was at FL370 and showing a descent to FL350. According to the SOP; the B737 must cross the boundary of R17/85 and R16/86 at FL350. When I took the hand off on the B737 I figured with 80 miles between the two aircraft the B737 should easily get underneath my A320; so I flashed through my B737 to R16 which is allowed according to our SOPs it is an approved Automated Information Transfer (AIT) procedure. R17/85 took the hand off on my A320 and did not notice the situation developing. I noticed soon after that the B737 was not starting down to FL350 and immediately assumed he was issued PLYER at FL350 which is a common practice in the area but not a requirement. The requirement is to cross the boundary at FL350 and PLYER is outside the boundary. As soon as I noticed I called D17/85 and asked if the B737 was issued PLYER at FL350 and he said he was and that we should stop him at FL370. At that point I assumed he was still talking to the B737 and that he was told to maintain FL370. The aircraft had 15 or so miles between them at that point. I yelled across the room that I had assumed RADAR contact on the B737 and took track control of the aircraft. The aircraft was a few miles from PLYER so I still assumed he was level at FL370 because he had not started down. I was still questioning who was talking to the aircraft so I yelled over to R17/85 asking them if they were talking to them and they said no; so I asked R16 to make sure the aircraft was stopped at FL370. R16 then asked the B737 if he was 'issued anything lower than that' and I believe the pilot at that point forgot he was issued the restriction and started down. R16 said no maintain FL370 and the pilot reported he was level at FL370 after showing a 500 foot drop. But it was too late to prevent an RA for the A320 and he started descended in response to a RA and notified me. I then noticed that there was P180 southbound at FL350 and told the A320 to continue descent to FL340 and turn 40 degrees right. I turned the P180 just 10 degrees right because the warning areas where hot off to his right. The A320 did not descend all the way to FL340; I believe the RA was telling him to climb. If he would have descended when I told him there would be no loss of separation but I believe the RA advisory confused the pilot. I recommend a standard crossing restriction for the RSW arrivals so that everyone is on the same page about altitude assignments.

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.