U90 controller described an unsafe event when a flight of two military jets failed to turn as direct...

Narrative:

I was working an air force recovery to dma; at night the air force departs runway 12 and recovers on runway 30. Generally this is not done at the same time; but this night I had aircraft Y inbound for a ILS to runway 30 and I requested it with dma as runway 12 was the active. They approved it and then asked of they could release a IFR flight of military aircraft off of runway 12. I said approved heading 300. As aircraft Y approached the localizer dma called to advise that aircraft X was rolling and per their 'regs.' aircraft Y could not be on final prior to aircraft X being on frequency; so to not bust my MVA's as soon as aircraft X did there rolling check on my frequency; I turned aircraft Y to final and issued traffic departing to aircraft Y. Aircraft X checked on frequency climbing out of 3;000 MSL with the transponder off. At this point the two flights were head on with aircraft X flying heading 120 and aircraft Y heading 300 with 4 NM apart. I instructed aircraft X to turn left heading 300 as dma had assigned. The aircraft replied that they would turn left in 5 seconds. I then issued the traffic and adamantly assigned the turn again. Once aircraft X finally began the turn I shipped aircraft Y to tower. Recommendation; have something in place that requires the pilot to turn to the assigned heading on departure or require more separation between opposite direction approaches.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: U90 Controller described an unsafe event when a flight of two military jets failed to turn as directed during opposite runway operations.

Narrative: I was working an Air Force recovery to DMA; at night the Air Force departs Runway 12 and recovers on Runway 30. Generally this is not done at the same time; but this night I had Aircraft Y inbound for a ILS to Runway 30 and I requested it with DMA as Runway 12 was the active. They approved it and then asked of they could release a IFR flight of military aircraft off of Runway 12. I said approved heading 300. As Aircraft Y approached the localizer DMA called to advise that Aircraft X was rolling and per their 'regs.' Aircraft Y could not be on final prior to Aircraft X being on frequency; so to not bust my MVA's as soon as Aircraft X did there rolling check on my frequency; I turned Aircraft Y to final and issued traffic departing to Aircraft Y. Aircraft X checked on frequency climbing out of 3;000 MSL with the transponder off. At this point the two flights were head on with Aircraft X flying heading 120 and Aircraft Y heading 300 with 4 NM apart. I instructed Aircraft X to turn left heading 300 as DMA had assigned. The aircraft replied that they would turn left in 5 seconds. I then issued the traffic and adamantly assigned the turn again. Once Aircraft X finally began the turn I shipped Aircraft Y to tower. Recommendation; have something in place that requires the pilot to turn to the assigned heading on departure or require more separation between opposite direction approaches.

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	980020
Time
Date	201111
Local Time Of Day	0001-0600
Place
Locale Reference	U90.TRACON
State Reference	AZ
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Military
Flight Phase	Initial Climb
Route In Use	Vectors
Flight Plan	IFR
Aircraft 2
Make Model Name	Military
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Final Approach
Flight Plan	VFR
Person 1
Function	Departure Approach
Qualification	Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy

U90 controller described an unsafe event when a flight of two military jets failed to turn as directed during opposite runway operations.