Narrative:

I was relieving the radar controller at the gea sector. The situation included deviating aircraft in the vicinity of aco-cxr VOR's. At the time I was sitting down; aircraft X was already given a temporary altitude of FL360 and was requesting FL370. Aircraft X had in his fourth line of the data block dr/slt and I was told that he was deviating right; and slt when able; and that I would be able to climb him shortly because he had traffic at FL370 off his left going direct hoxie; which should result in divergence. At that time I was also receiving a hand off from the fkl sector on an aircraft at FL360 that was head-on with aircraft X. Now here is where the problem came in; aircraft X was actually deviating left of direct slt and I was unable to climb him because of the FL370 traffic off to his left. So I asked that traffic if it could turn to the left and it could not due to weather. I also questioned aircraft X about why he was going left when he had told the previous controller that he was deviating right. In the mean time; I had my d-side point-out aircraft X to the lor sector; down to FL350. At this stage; aircraft X explained to me that when he first started to deviate to the right his route was djb-cxr-slt and that the previous controller had given him approval and slt when able. His deviating right of djb was actually left of going direct slt which ended up putting him on a converging path with the aircraft at FL370 instead of diverging. Now I had FL350 and I issue it to aircraft X and go about taking care of some things because there are a few other aircraft on frequency that are deviating and wanting higher. When I got back to aircraft X he was only out of FL358 and I told him to expedite to FL250; realizing what I was saying; I came back and correct myself and stated FL350. He responded that he was descending and would remain on that heading. I took care of a few other things and came back to aircraft X and told him to go direct slt and contact cle center. Shortly after it was brought to my attention that aircraft X was going through FL350; at that time the fkl controller was calling me about something else and I said make sure that aircraft X was stopping at FL350 and not going to FL250. They where able to stop him and he ended up leveling at FL310. Recommendation: there is a communication problem here that needs to be clarified on the part of the controller; when it comes to deviating aircraft. In most situations; when a aircraft deviates and then is given direct further downstream there is not a issue because the deviating will be in the same direction; but in this case it was not right of direct slt but left of direct slt. I can see two solutions; one is to enter that the aircraft is deviating and not whether it is left or right. Another would be for the controller to question the pilot as to how far the deviating is going to be when giving direct. Asking the pilot why he was left of course instead of right did take up time and could of been resolved later; the information was helpful for later situations but was not needed at that time. This situation could have had a tracker; at least for a little while; but we haven't been using trackers as much as in the past and this was unusual situation. The confusion led to the miscommunication of the altitude and thus the airspace violation.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: ZOB Controller described an airspace infraction during multiple weather deviation events and less than clear communications with adjacent sectors.

Narrative: I was relieving the RADAR Controller at the GEA Sector. The situation included deviating aircraft in the vicinity of ACO-CXR VOR's. At the time I was sitting down; Aircraft X was already given a temporary altitude of FL360 and was requesting FL370. Aircraft X had in his fourth line of the Data Block DR/SLT and I was told that he was deviating right; and SLT when able; and that I would be able to climb him shortly because he had traffic at FL370 off his left going direct HOXIE; which should result in divergence. At that time I was also receiving a hand off from the FKL Sector on an aircraft at FL360 that was head-on with Aircraft X. Now here is where the problem came in; Aircraft X was actually deviating left of direct SLT and I was unable to climb him because of the FL370 traffic off to his left. So I asked that traffic if it could turn to the left and it could not due to weather. I also questioned Aircraft X about why he was going left when he had told the previous controller that he was deviating right. In the mean time; I had my D-Side point-out Aircraft X to the LOR Sector; down to FL350. At this stage; Aircraft X explained to me that when he first started to deviate to the right his route was DJB-CXR-SLT and that the previous controller had given him approval and SLT when able. His deviating right of DJB was actually left of going direct SLT which ended up putting him on a converging path with the aircraft at FL370 instead of diverging. Now I had FL350 and I issue it to Aircraft X and go about taking care of some things because there are a few other aircraft on frequency that are deviating and wanting higher. When I got back to Aircraft X he was only out of FL358 and I told him to expedite to FL250; realizing what I was saying; I came back and correct myself and stated FL350. He responded that he was descending and would remain on that heading. I took care of a few other things and came back to Aircraft X and told him to go direct SLT and contact CLE Center. Shortly after it was brought to my attention that Aircraft X was going through FL350; at that time the FKL controller was calling me about something else and I said make sure that Aircraft X was stopping at FL350 and not going to FL250. They where able to stop him and he ended up leveling at FL310. Recommendation: there is a communication problem here that needs to be clarified on the part of the controller; when it comes to deviating aircraft. In most situations; when a aircraft deviates and then is given direct further downstream there is not a issue because the deviating will be in the same direction; but in this case it was not right of direct SLT but left of direct SLT. I can see two solutions; one is to enter that the aircraft is deviating and not whether it is left or right. Another would be for the controller to question the pilot as to how far the deviating is going to be when giving direct. Asking the pilot why he was left of course instead of right did take up time and could of been resolved later; the information was helpful for later situations but was not needed at that time. This situation could have had a tracker; at least for a little while; but we haven't been using trackers as much as in the past and this was unusual situation. The confusion led to the miscommunication of the altitude and thus the airspace violation.

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.