ZID controller described a likely airspace incursion when re-routes and altitude changes were issued...

Narrative:

A CRJ7 was filed to depart cvg and head into ZOB to his destination. ZID tmu called the area supervisor and asked him to tell the controller to reroute the flight into ZDC and to cap his altitude at FL230 instead of FL370. I took over the sector a couple of minutes after this happened. The aircraft was still on the frequency that cvg departures that go to ZOB would be on instead of the other frequency that he would have been on if he had been given this reroute before he left the ground. ZDC does not usually get very many hand offs from my sector; it is kind of a blind corner for both facilities. This probably caused ZDC to not accept the hand off until a few miles from the boundary; which in turn put the aircraft very far from the transmitter. This also probably made me think that he may have already taken the frequency change when he did not respond to the frequency change that I gave him. Recommendation; I think capping aircraft can cause snowballing of issues. This particular event would have never happened if the aircraft had not been rerouted or capped; both of them could have caused this incident and in this case both of them happened and it almost made it happen. I recommend that we take a look at both the 'capping' and 'rerouting' procedures we use and how to make them successful. I also think we should be 'ahead' of the weather reroutes instead of behind them.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: ZID Controller described a likely airspace incursion when re-routes and altitude changes were issued due to weather complicating the normal sector operations.

Narrative: A CRJ7 was filed to depart CVG and head into ZOB to his destination. ZID TMU called the Area Supervisor and asked him to tell the controller to reroute the flight into ZDC and to cap his altitude at FL230 instead of FL370. I took over the sector a couple of minutes after this happened. The aircraft was still on the frequency that CVG departures that go to ZOB would be on instead of the other frequency that he would have been on if he had been given this reroute before he left the ground. ZDC does not usually get very many hand offs from my sector; it is kind of a blind corner for both facilities. This probably caused ZDC to not accept the hand off until a few miles from the boundary; which in turn put the aircraft very far from the transmitter. This also probably made me think that he may have already taken the frequency change when he did not respond to the frequency change that I gave him. Recommendation; I think capping aircraft can cause snowballing of issues. This particular event would have never happened if the aircraft had not been rerouted or capped; both of them could have caused this incident and in this case both of them happened and it almost made it happen. I recommend that we take a look at both the 'capping' and 'rerouting' procedures we use and how to make them successful. I also think we should be 'ahead' of the weather reroutes instead of behind them.

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	950160
Time
Date	201105
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	ZID.ARTCC
State Reference	IN
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Regional Jet 700 ER/LR (CRJ700)
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Cruise
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Enroute
Qualification	Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy

ZID controller described a likely airspace incursion when re-routes and altitude changes were issued due to weather complicating the normal sector operations.