Narrative:

A B737 and a dash 8 were inbound from the northwest. The B737 assigned 280 KTS or greater and 100 ft to 'pass' the dash 8 who was assigned 190 KTS at 090. After the B737 passed the dash 8; I assigned the dash 15 degrees left to provide extra space to the final controller. Next I assigned the B737 to reduce speed to 250 KTS; then descend and maintain 090. Separation was lost when the B737 descended through 100. We were in the middle of an arrival 'push' and the flm approved 2 photo missions both at 085 VFR. They were both doing east to west lines from about 20 NM west of the airport. The first was approximately 10 NM going east to west and the other was passing from east to west right over the airport where all arrivals from the north were descending through. I asked the flm if we could work them in later after the push was over and he disregarded my request. I had to call traffic on each one of my aircraft coming from the north to each of the photo takers and vise versa. This included the arrival radar east's traffic because of the path of both photo takers took them east of the airport. During busy periods; the flm should not approve any non-essential missions that require so much attention from the controller. Having to call traffic so many times absolutely took a lot of my focus off of arrival traffic. There was no reason we couldn't have delayed the photo missions for 45 minutes due to volume; especially when controller makes the request to the flm. Another contributing factor was whether the B737 complied with the speed restriction first then descended through 100. At the point when I gave the restriction the B737 was 90 KTS faster than the dash 8 and already in front.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: TRACON Controller described a loss of separation during an arrival rush when inbound traffic conflicted with photo mission traffic; the reporter listing the ill advised photo mission as contributing to the error.

Narrative: A B737 and a Dash 8 were inbound from the northwest. The B737 assigned 280 KTS or greater and 100 FT to 'pass' the Dash 8 who was assigned 190 KTS at 090. After the B737 passed the Dash 8; I assigned the Dash 15 degrees left to provide extra space to the Final Controller. Next I assigned the B737 to reduce speed to 250 KTS; then descend and maintain 090. Separation was lost when the B737 descended through 100. We were in the middle of an arrival 'push' and the FLM approved 2 photo missions both at 085 VFR. They were both doing east to west lines from about 20 NM west of the airport. The first was approximately 10 NM going east to west and the other was passing from east to west right over the airport where all arrivals from the north were descending through. I asked the FLM if we could work them in later after the push was over and he disregarded my request. I had to call traffic on each one of my aircraft coming from the north to each of the photo takers and vise versa. This included the arrival RADAR East's traffic because of the path of both photo takers took them east of the airport. During busy periods; the FLM should not approve any non-essential missions that require so much attention from the controller. Having to call traffic so many times absolutely took a lot of my focus off of arrival traffic. There was no reason we couldn't have delayed the photo missions for 45 minutes due to volume; especially when controller makes the request to the FLM. Another contributing factor was whether the B737 complied with the speed restriction first then descended through 100. At the point when I gave the restriction the B737 was 90 KTS faster than the Dash 8 and already in front.

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.