Narrative:

While working R57/R58; a 1-6 flight of sky dive aircraft was operating VFR up to 179 around the jump zone area. We have a standard jump zone normally; but with the higher altitude and the formation flight that they occasionally fly; they required more airspace. At the time of the incident; a ski dive aircraft was at 160; southbound towards my mco departure stream. My departure stream consisted of a three-way stack of an overflight aircraft at 170; the aircraft X who departed mco and was level at 160; and aircraft Y overflight level at 150. I called the skydive aircraft traffic to everyone involved and planned on using visual separation to help the aircraft X climb. Before I could do this; the aircraft X reported a TCAS decent. He descended to 157 on top of the aircraft Y; causing a loss of separation. I called the appropriate traffic alerts; and when the traffic was no longer a factor aircraft X returned to his assigned altitude. To prevent this from happening again; I recommend that when the skydive aircraft require extra airspace for formation flight jumps at a higher altitude than normal; we should move the mco departures to a single stream micki operation. If this was done; all departing aircraft would be no factor for the skydivers since they would be at least 5 miles west of the skydivers; and there would be no unsafe head-on situations.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: ZJX Controller described a TCAS RA event when a MCO Air Carrier departure and a group of skydive aircraft were in conflict; the reporter suggesting increase airspace protection during this type of activity.

Narrative: While working R57/R58; a 1-6 flight of sky dive aircraft was operating VFR up to 179 around the Jump Zone area. We have a standard Jump Zone normally; but with the higher altitude and the formation flight that they occasionally fly; they required more airspace. At the time of the incident; a ski dive aircraft was at 160; southbound towards my MCO departure stream. My departure stream consisted of a three-way stack of an overflight aircraft at 170; the Aircraft X who departed MCO and was level at 160; and Aircraft Y overflight level at 150. I called the skydive aircraft traffic to everyone involved and planned on using visual separation to help the Aircraft X climb. Before I could do this; the Aircraft X reported a TCAS decent. He descended to 157 on top of the Aircraft Y; causing a loss of separation. I called the appropriate traffic alerts; and when the traffic was no longer a factor Aircraft X returned to his assigned altitude. To prevent this from happening again; I recommend that when the skydive aircraft require extra airspace for formation flight jumps at a higher altitude than normal; we should move the MCO departures to a single stream MICKI operation. If this was done; all departing aircraft would be no factor for the skydivers since they would be at least 5 miles west of the skydivers; and there would be no unsafe head-on situations.

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.