TRACON controller voiced concern regarding helicopter and banner tow operations near the final appro...

Narrative:

We had numerous VFR helicopters and banner tow aircraft in the vicinity of the final to 19R. An A320 came in from the west and I assigned a heading for sequencing to avoid the vfrs near the final. I turned them to the localizer 5 miles outside the fix and cleared them for the visual approach. I called traffic on the banner tows and the helicopters. He had the banner tows in sight but not the helicopters. I made additional traffic calls and when I felt he was past the traffic; shipped him to tower. At that same time the aircraft reported an RA. The pilot said he was going around so I gave him go-around instructions. Coordination between tower and TRACON was questionable as far as who should be talking to the VFR aircraft. Tower felt TRACON should be talking to them and TRACON felt tower should be talking to them. Airspace and/or procedures in this case are very questionable. Should VFR lingering be allowed that close to the final of an active runway? Recommendation; who should talk to vfrs working close to the final inside the marker?

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: TRACON Controller voiced concern regarding helicopter and banner tow operations near the final approach course that caused a TCAS RA event; claiming clarity should be established as to who; Tower and/or TRACON; should handle these types of operations.

Narrative: We had numerous VFR helicopters and banner tow aircraft in the vicinity of the final to 19R. An A320 came in from the west and I assigned a heading for sequencing to avoid the VFRs near the Final. I turned them to the localizer 5 miles outside the fix and cleared them for the Visual Approach. I called traffic on the banner tows and the helicopters. He had the banner tows in sight but not the helicopters. I made additional traffic calls and when I felt he was past the traffic; shipped him to Tower. At that same time the aircraft reported an RA. The pilot said he was going around so I gave him go-around instructions. Coordination between Tower and TRACON was questionable as far as who should be talking to the VFR aircraft. Tower felt TRACON should be talking to them and TRACON felt Tower should be talking to them. Airspace and/or procedures in this case are very questionable. Should VFR lingering be allowed that close to the final of an active runway? Recommendation; who should talk to VFRs working close to the Final inside the marker?

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	956369
Time
Date	201106
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	MKE.Tower
State Reference	WI
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	A320
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Final Approach
Route In Use	Visual Approach
Flight Plan	IFR
Aircraft 2
Make Model Name	Helicopter
Flight Phase	Cruise
Route In Use	None
Flight Plan	VFR
Person 1
Function	Approach
Qualification	Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Conflict Airborne Conflict Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy

TRACON controller voiced concern regarding helicopter and banner tow operations near the final approach course that caused a TCAS RA event; claiming clarity should be established as to who; tower and/or TRACON; should handle these types of operations.