Narrative:

I was working several aircraft inbound to dtw. Time based metering was in effect. I had times in excess of five to ten minutes with aircraft slowed and vectored to try to reduce the times. Air carrier X reported on my frequency at FL310 on a 280 heading at 250 KTS in ape sector airspace 30 miles from my boundary. I was focused on traffic within my sector trying to meet meter times. Times were rescheduled which did not help. Later in the situation I got a hand off on air carrier Y with FL300 in the data block converging with air carrier X. Air carrier Y was only descending to FL310. Ape sector asked if we had descended air carrier X because he was converging with air carrier Y; the radar associate asked if I had descended air carrier X; I cleared air carrier X to descend to FL280 with an expedite through FL300 and then noticed air carrier Y who was still talking to ape sector was starting to descend so I stopped air carrier X before he started a descent. Neither aircraft was in my sector at the time.recommendation: have ZID show the same meter times so that we don't have high times with only minutes to try to make them work. Have a consistent meter time to work towards instead of constantly vectoring and slowing to meet a time that changes. I should have returned air carrier X to the ape sector so that both aircraft were on their frequency instead of different people trying to determine what the other is doing.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: ZOB Controller described an unsafe condition situation when DTW arrivals were subjected to Time Based Metering (TBM) restrictions resulting in potential conflicts and increased workload volume and complexity.

Narrative: I was working several aircraft inbound to DTW. Time based metering was in effect. I had times in excess of five to ten minutes with aircraft slowed and vectored to try to reduce the times. Air Carrier X reported on my frequency at FL310 on a 280 heading at 250 KTS in APE Sector airspace 30 miles from my boundary. I was focused on traffic within my sector trying to meet meter times. Times were rescheduled which did not help. Later in the situation I got a hand off on Air Carrier Y with FL300 in the Data Block converging with Air Carrier X. Air Carrier Y was only descending to FL310. APE Sector asked if we had descended Air Carrier X because he was converging with Air Carrier Y; the radar associate asked if I had descended Air Carrier X; I cleared Air Carrier X to descend to FL280 with an expedite through FL300 and then noticed Air Carrier Y who was still talking to APE Sector was starting to descend so I stopped Air Carrier X before he started a descent. Neither aircraft was in my sector at the time.Recommendation: have ZID show the same meter times so that we don't have high times with only minutes to try to make them work. Have a consistent meter time to work towards instead of constantly vectoring and slowing to meet a time that changes. I should have returned Air Carrier X to the APE sector so that both aircraft were on their frequency instead of different people trying to determine what the other is doing.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 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.