Narrative:

I was just moved to the squib/sparta d-side to help the r-side who had no d-side at the time; because of real low staffing. We were working many combined sectors without d-sides all day. That is not normal. It was an air show and there were many aircraft picking up IFR flight plans as well as just odd route requirements. I was not there more than a minute and was not able to get a briefing because it was too busy. My calls were forwarded but sbn approach was calling. I picked up the line and the controller was calling for a point out. I said we have an aircraft descending to 5;000 coming southbound do you see him? I was asking questions because I thought the coordination was done all ready with sbn and my r-side was too busy to ask. He said I see the aircraft and I thought a few things. 1) I thought since the conflict point was in his airspace and he is an approach control he has less requirements that this would be fine. He didn't tell me to stop the descender or anything. 2) he was the receiving controller; I told him the lear was coming his way descending and he didn't say anything. He didn't say yay or nay about it; so because I though it was close for us at the center; I thought it was less than 5 miles but more than 3 miles; so I thought he was fine with it. The last thing I remember saying is since you see the lear then the other guy is point out approved. Again the point out would occur after the two aircraft passed. Recommendation; I think there are a few things that were the cause. 1) we were very short staffed especially because of the air show; so we were moving the one d-side around based off of complexity when in reality we could have used 2 d-sides at times. 2) fam trips to approach facilities in our jurisdiction would allow us to see different scenarios that might make us understand each other better. 3) the radar coverage in that area is horrible and we have to do odd type coordination due to that which could cause an incident like this in the future. 4) the airspace where this occurred was supposed to be transferred to mkg approach many months ago. The reason is because of things just like this.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: ZAU Controller described a conflict event allegedly due to separation assumptions made during coordination with SBN Approach Control; the reporter listing staffing; unfamiliarity with terminal procedures and airspace allocations as contributing factors.

Narrative: I was just moved to the Squib/Sparta D-Side to help the R-Side who had no D-Side at the time; because of real low staffing. We were working many combined sectors without D-Sides all day. That is not normal. It was an air show and there were many aircraft picking up IFR flight plans as well as just odd route requirements. I was not there more than a minute and was not able to get a briefing because it was too busy. My calls were forwarded but SBN Approach was calling. I picked up the line and the Controller was calling for a point out. I said we have an aircraft descending to 5;000 coming southbound do you see him? I was asking questions because I thought the coordination was done all ready with SBN and my R-Side was too busy to ask. He said I see the aircraft and I thought a few things. 1) I thought since the conflict point was in his airspace and he is an Approach Control he has less requirements that this would be fine. He didn't tell me to stop the descender or anything. 2) He was the receiving controller; I told him the Lear was coming his way descending and he didn't say anything. He didn't say yay or nay about it; so because I though it was close for us at the Center; I thought it was less than 5 miles but more than 3 miles; so I thought he was fine with it. The last thing I remember saying is since you see the Lear then the other guy is point out approved. Again the point out would occur after the two aircraft passed. Recommendation; I think there are a few things that were the cause. 1) We were very short staffed especially because of the air show; so we were moving the one D-Side around based off of complexity when in reality we could have used 2 D-Sides at times. 2) FAM trips to Approach facilities in our jurisdiction would allow us to see different scenarios that might make us understand each other better. 3) The RADAR coverage in that area is horrible and we have to do odd type coordination due to that which could cause an incident like this in the future. 4) The airspace where this occurred was supposed to be transferred to MKG Approach many months ago. The reason is because of things just like this.

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.