2022-07 · NASA ASRS report 1921081
A Center Area Supervisor and Operations Manager reported the adjacent Center refused to take hand offs and advised their sectors to hold aircraft without any advance notice. The reporters stated this caused their airspace to become unsafe due to losses of separation and airspace violations.
I was the supervisor on duty. We had 6 controllers for the night shift and a partial rated D side. The weather in sector XX was popcorned all over the scope. I noticed while observing the sector that the aircraft that were in the southwest area which aligns our airspace to the south started going northbound toward our airspace. We had aircraft flashing at ZZZ1 sector XY. They were not taking the hand-offs and finally relayed to the controller at sector XX they were no longer taking any hand-offs. The sector was already complex and now we were having to route the aircraft around in our airspace to keep them out of ZZZ1 sector XY. I was able to get a D-side from Traffic Management Unit. He was rated in our area to help out. ZZZ1 was running aircraft into our airspace with no point outs. We would take hand-offs and they wouldn't switch the aircraft. There was a point where an aircraft auto popped in our airspace and ZZZ1 had climbed the aircraft. Sector XX Controller went on guard to reach the aircraft to stop the climb. They allowed us to hold aircraft over ZZZZZ intersection and then would run planes through them. There was nothing safe about this situation. I was given no notice of the shut-off. They did this same thing last week 2 times to us. Their Supervisor relayed to me a few times on the phone how unsafe the sector was and they just needed time to make the airspace safe again. I was told by the Morning Supervisor they were shut off with no notice also. I only had 6 controllers and none of them should have been forced to work this number of planes with this complexity. Sector YY which is to the east of sector XX was also forced to work way more planes than they could.ZZZ1 needs to come up with a better mitigation practice than no notice holding. I usually do not have the people to control a no notice holding. We have numerous people out for COVID leave that do not have COVID. This program needs to be revisited. It is putting the national airspace system at risk. Controllers are taking advantage of it just to get out of work. The controllers that show up to work are forced to work extended hours to cover. I had 5 controllers go over 2 hours on position.
ZZZ had weather on the ZZZ1/ZZZ boundary between ZZZ2 and ZZZ3. Approximately XB45; ZZZ1 stopped taking handoffs from ZZZ due to their volume. This was the second time today and the fifth time in a week that ZZZ1 has put ZZZ into no notice holding. The frustrating thing is that ZZZ's Traffic Management Unit (TMU) called ZZZ1 TMU and they did not know why the areas put us into no notice holding. ZZZ's sectors XY; YX; XX and YY were holding aircraft in moderate to severe weather. All four of these sectors turned into very unsafe situations due to volume and extreme complexity. As the Operations Manager; I took over the position at XA30 and was briefed that earlier in the day ZZZ1 did the same thing. I watched the MAP numbers for the ZZZ1 sectors building with them turning red at XB30. Our TMU had taken it upon themselves to help out ZZZ1 by shutting off the ZZZZZ departure out of ZZZ4 in an effort to mitigate the volume. It is my opinion that the ZZZ1 specialties seem to think that they can just stop taking handoffs in an effort to mitigate their volume which is extremely unsafe and is evident with this being the fifth time in a week that they have done this. The ZZZ1 specialties need to communicate better with their TMU and then with our TMU so that we can slow down the problem without stopping the flow of traffic and creating an unsafe situation. Their TMU needs to communicate their needs to us so that we can create a plan on how to safely handle the situation. ZZZ cannot operate the national airspace system efficiently if we cannot expect ZZZ1 to take handoffs. The way that they are operating is unprofessional and unsafe.
Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.
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