Narrative:

I was working as fpl; training first sector r-side student. We just had a rough week and the student has had many issues with basic duties along with terrain concerns which may have been a factor on his mind. We had been advised that aircraft X was landing at a different airport than his filed destination during the briefing. I expected my student would make and attempt to get this information clear with the pilot in a timely manner. Soon after; the pilot reported 1/8 inch ice and inquired about lower. I had a detailed discussion with the student about MOCA/MEA/mias and made the comment that this aircraft could be a problem as usually this is how situations or chains start to build. It is really difficult to know what is going on in the student's thoughts while allowing him to demonstrate and execute rational decisions. The aircraft then advised he was unable to hold altitude due to the ice. At this point I advised the supervisor and he immediately got the clipboard for notes; etc. There was considerable dialog with the student and I said that 9;000 ft was the lowest we are able to offer due to MEA/mias in the area. The pilot finally declared an emergency to allow him to execute PIC authority. The pilot reported he was descending and for some reason my student told him to maintain 8;000 ft. I was caught off guard while trying to get the latest AFD for additional runway details and weather. This 8;000 ft was not anywhere in my verbiage and I immediately had the aircraft maintain 9;000 ft and advise. He was advised of the highest terrain; which was slightly north of his position. Two airports were suggested and he was queried as to if/when terrain was in site. He ended up loosing the ice around 7;300 ft. We did receive a d-side; but really late at this point due to the dynamic situation we were dealing with. We gave the information that we had received of fuel; souls on board; and intentions and the pilot continued along towards the destination. He finally canceled IFR after he was able to continue on VFR. The aircraft later called to flight service to verify cancellation per our supervisor.getting eram to display additional airports would be great and we could have given a vector possible. [Also]; low altitude (la) alert; but in this case would have been useless as the pilot had the information already. May have been better if I had taken the sector; but at some point I had to allow the student to control the situation. It is purely hindsight and I had to do what I had to do ensure that the pilot was descending on his own and not by my approval.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Enroute Controller providing OJT described an icing emergency event chronically multiple decisions made that included maximizing the student's experience with this type of situation.

Narrative: I was working as FPL; training first sector R-side student. We just had a rough week and the student has had many issues with basic duties along with terrain concerns which may have been a factor on his mind. We had been advised that Aircraft X was landing at a different airport than his filed destination during the briefing. I expected my student would make and attempt to get this information clear with the pilot in a timely manner. Soon after; the pilot reported 1/8 inch ice and inquired about lower. I had a detailed discussion with the student about MOCA/MEA/MIAs and made the comment that this aircraft could be a problem as usually this is how situations or chains start to build. It is really difficult to know what is going on in the student's thoughts while allowing him to demonstrate and execute rational decisions. The aircraft then advised he was unable to hold altitude due to the ice. At this point I advised the Supervisor and he immediately got the clipboard for notes; etc. There was considerable dialog with the student and I said that 9;000 FT was the lowest we are able to offer due to MEA/MIAs in the area. The pilot finally declared an emergency to allow him to execute PIC authority. The pilot reported he was descending and for some reason my student told him to maintain 8;000 FT. I was caught off guard while trying to get the latest AFD for additional runway details and weather. This 8;000 FT was not anywhere in my verbiage and I immediately had the aircraft maintain 9;000 FT and advise. He was advised of the highest terrain; which was slightly north of his position. Two airports were suggested and he was queried as to if/when terrain was in site. He ended up loosing the ice around 7;300 FT. We did receive a D-side; but really late at this point due to the dynamic situation we were dealing with. We gave the information that we had received of fuel; souls on board; and intentions and the pilot continued along towards the destination. He finally canceled IFR after he was able to continue on VFR. The aircraft later called to Flight Service to verify cancellation per our Supervisor.Getting ERAM to display additional airports would be great and we could have given a vector possible. [Also]; low altitude (LA) alert; but in this case would have been useless as the pilot had the information already. May have been better if I had taken the sector; but at some point I had to allow the student to control the situation. It is purely hindsight and I had to do what I had to do ensure that the pilot was descending on his own and not by my approval.

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.