Narrative:

During busy traffic; a proposal came off the printer for a military aircraft that; per a LOA; should have been showing active and in our traffic bay. When we tried to follow the LOA for the aircraft; it has not been updated to rvsm airspace; nor had it been updated at all since 1998. The military contact phone numbers are no longer active and have been disconnected. This was a coordination failure; because the previous shift had not obtained the estimate as required when the aircraft was southbound. The aircraft was responsible for forwarding an accurate estimate an hour prior to recovery and the pilot did not do so. We could not contact the appropriate authorities; because the phone numbers did not work. We did finally get communications and get the aircraft on course safely; after over 30 minutes of searching and calling. The LOA needs updating with correct procedures in place for both the controllers; the pilot; and the military as well as correct contact phone numbers. The LOA needs updating to comply with rvsm altitudes! The LOA needs updating to meet airspace and sector separation requirements. The LOA needs updating to reflect the actual control sector working the aircraft and their responsibilities. The LOA needs updating to address NORDO procedures and what altitude to protect and specifically state how long to protect for these aircraft.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: ZHU Controller described a confused military operation event; listing outdated procedures as the primary casual factor in this instance.

Narrative: During busy traffic; a proposal came off the printer for a military aircraft that; per a LOA; should have been showing active and in our traffic bay. When we tried to follow the LOA for the aircraft; it has not been updated to RVSM airspace; nor had it been updated at all since 1998. The military contact phone numbers are no longer active and have been disconnected. This was a coordination failure; because the previous shift had not obtained the estimate as required when the aircraft was southbound. The aircraft was responsible for forwarding an accurate estimate an hour prior to recovery and the pilot did not do so. We could not contact the appropriate authorities; because the phone numbers did not work. We did finally get communications and get the aircraft on course safely; after over 30 minutes of searching and calling. The LOA needs updating with correct procedures in place for both the controllers; the pilot; and the military as well as correct contact phone numbers. The LOA needs updating to comply with RVSM altitudes! The LOA needs updating to meet airspace and sector separation requirements. The LOA needs updating to reflect the actual control sector working the aircraft and their responsibilities. The LOA needs updating to address NORDO procedures and what altitude to protect and specifically state how long to protect for these aircraft.

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.