Enroute controller permitted a military aircraft with emergency fuel to fly within 3 miles of a rest...

Narrative:

Area airports weather was poor which caused me to have to hold numerous aircraft. An F18 came over to me because he could not land at his home base because of weather; when I got him he was minimum fuel. In the midst of bringing in the holding aircraft for area airports and sequencing arrivals; the F18 declared emergency fuel said he was proceeding direct to a near by military airport. This route would put him within 3 miles of a restricted area. After I received the fuel on board remaining and souls on board; I issued the aircraft a discretionary descent which put him within a mile or so of the hot restricted area. I don't have any recommendations. I know the error I made; but at the time the risk of the aircraft crashing because I was trying to force a emergency aircraft to fly a vector away from the restricted area and go through the procedure of explaining to the aircraft that I could not allow him to fly direct the airport because it would put him within 3 miles of the restricted area was less than the risk of an aircraft operating in the restricted area spilling out and conflicting with the emergency aircraft.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Enroute Controller permitted a military aircraft with emergency fuel to fly within 3 miles of a restricted area approving a direct routing to the landing airport.

Narrative: Area airports weather was poor which caused me to have to hold numerous aircraft. An F18 came over to me because he could not land at his home base because of weather; when I got him he was minimum fuel. In the midst of bringing in the holding aircraft for area airports and sequencing arrivals; the F18 declared emergency fuel said he was proceeding direct to a near by military airport. This route would put him within 3 miles of a restricted area. After I received the fuel on board remaining and souls on board; I issued the aircraft a discretionary descent which put him within a mile or so of the hot restricted area. I don't have any recommendations. I know the error I made; but at the time the risk of the aircraft crashing because I was trying to force a emergency aircraft to fly a vector away from the restricted area and go through the procedure of explaining to the aircraft that I could not allow him to fly direct the airport because it would put him within 3 miles of the restricted area was less than the risk of an aircraft operating in the restricted area spilling out and conflicting with the emergency 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.

Attributes
ACN	975097
Time
Date	201110
Local Time Of Day	0001-0600
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.ARTCC
State Reference	US
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Hornet (F-18)
Flight Phase	Descent
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Enroute
Qualification	Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Airspace Violation All Types Inflight Event / Encounter Fuel Issue Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence

Enroute controller permitted a military aircraft with emergency fuel to fly within 3 miles of a restricted area approving a direct routing to the landing airport.