Narrative:

I was working air carrier X in on the moxee arrival in front of another air carrier. I could have sworn both aircraft were handed off to pdx (P80) approach. I shipped both aircraft to P80 and /0'd the data blocks. I tried to drop the air carrier X data block and thought I missed it with the pick function. Later on I noticed that I had control of the air carrier X data block even though it was inside P80 airspace and aircraft had descended below 12;000 MSL. I called P80 and asked if they were talking to air carrier X to which they replied affirmative and then took the hand off after we flashed it at them. The controller mentioned that he thought it was just another eram issue and worked the aircraft as he normally would so he never called us to confirm the identity - apparently it auto popped on his scope. I was fairly busy with altimeter issues taking up some trying to figure how we could get a current altimeter so aircraft altitudes would not be off by 500 ft and so aircraft could actually shoot approaches. There was a military aircraft showing 500 ft low causing a distraction because it was not flying the route shown in the computer and showing a deviation from assigned altitude (500 ft low). Meanwhile I was looking up the onp AWOS telephone number to have the d-side call and get a current altimeter. Onp altimeter was missing and apparently defaulting to 29.92 causing the altitude anomalies. With eram there are many issues and I find that many times eram does not work as designed (wad) and the controller is left wondering is there something I did/did not do that caused this when in fact it is eram related malfunctions. We checked with the supervisor about the altimeter issues and he checked with someone else. He reported that there was nothing that could be done to get an altimeter and that there was no alternate plan for this type of system failure. Finally the supervisor grabbed an altimeter from the national weather station site on the internet and we plugged that one in. Recommendation; if we missed making the hand off; eram needs to be looked at since the auto hand off feature obviously did not work. I was told afterwards the auto hand feature does not work with temporary altitudes only hard altitudes. Glancing at the air carrier X data block and the aircraft behind who was handed off they both appeared to have handed off at first glance. If we flat out did not make the hand off then I would have to recommend getting the auto hand off feature in eram fixed as well as changing the color coding of the right in the data block to red or some other color different than the data block itself to make it more noticeable if hand off is not made two minutes from the boundary. The right in the data block could be shifted left so that is sticks out away from the main data block to make it more noticeable when hand off is complete. Once again; that would mean relying on eram to do its job which at this point it does not do as well as expected. If we didn't catch the missed hand off then I guess we flat out missed it and possibly relied too much on automation to help us. P80's assumption that eram was malfunctioning 'as normal' inhibited them from calling sector 6 and making a query when they probably should have. They went as far as to descend the aircraft after talking to them. Additionally the altimeter issue with eram defaulting to 29.92 and throwing the altimeters off 500 ft is very distracting as I was gearing up for a possible low altitude alert.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: ZSE Controller described several concerns regarding the operation of ERAM after a hand off to P80 was uncertain and altimeter information was faulty.

Narrative: I was working Air Carrier X in on the Moxee arrival in front of another Air Carrier. I could have sworn both aircraft were handed off to PDX (P80) Approach. I shipped both aircraft to P80 and /0'd the Data Blocks. I tried to drop the Air Carrier X data block and thought I missed it with the Pick function. Later on I noticed that I had control of the Air Carrier X data block even though it was inside P80 airspace and aircraft had descended below 12;000 MSL. I called P80 and asked if they were talking to Air Carrier X to which they replied affirmative and then took the hand off after we flashed it at them. The Controller mentioned that he thought it was just another ERAM issue and worked the aircraft as he normally would so he never called us to confirm the identity - apparently it auto popped on his scope. I was fairly busy with altimeter issues taking up some trying to figure how we could get a current altimeter so aircraft altitudes would not be off by 500 FT and so aircraft could actually shoot approaches. There was a military aircraft showing 500 FT low causing a distraction because it was not flying the route shown in the computer and showing a deviation from assigned altitude (500 FT low). Meanwhile I was looking up the ONP AWOS telephone number to have the D-Side call and get a current altimeter. ONP altimeter was missing and apparently defaulting to 29.92 causing the altitude anomalies. With ERAM there are many issues and I find that many times ERAM does not Work As Designed (WAD) and the Controller is left wondering is there something I did/did not do that caused this when in fact it is ERAM related malfunctions. We checked with the supervisor about the altimeter issues and he checked with someone else. He reported that there was nothing that could be done to get an altimeter and that there was no alternate plan for this type of system failure. Finally the supervisor grabbed an altimeter from the National Weather Station site on the INTERNET and we plugged that one in. Recommendation; if we missed making the hand off; ERAM needs to be looked at since the Auto Hand off Feature obviously did not work. I was told afterwards the auto hand feature does not work with temporary altitudes only hard altitudes. Glancing at the Air Carrier X data block and the aircraft behind who was handed off they both appeared to have handed off at first glance. If we flat out did not make the hand off then I would have to recommend getting the auto hand off feature in ERAM fixed as well as changing the color coding of the R in the data block to Red or some other color different than the data block itself to make it more noticeable if hand off is not made two minutes from the boundary. The R in the data block could be shifted left so that is sticks out away from the main data block to make it more noticeable when hand off is complete. Once again; that would mean relying on ERAM to do its job which at this point it does not do as well as expected. If we didn't catch the missed hand off then I guess we flat out missed it and possibly relied too much on automation to help us. P80's assumption that ERAM was malfunctioning 'as normal' inhibited them from calling Sector 6 and making a query when they probably should have. They went as far as to descend the aircraft after talking to them. Additionally the altimeter issue with ERAM defaulting to 29.92 and throwing the altimeters off 500 FT is very distracting as I was gearing up for a possible low altitude 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.