2010-07 · NASA ASRS report 897161
Separation was lost when C90 refused other than standard arrival routing when aircraft were being released to ORD in spite of weather on that route.
I was on the D-Side. C90 called and brought us out of the hold for ORD. We were now direct ORD and seven miles in trail at 250 knots. The first aircraft we were about to ship to ORD would not accept direct ORD. The RADAR assigned the CRJ a 330 heading; then a 360 heading to avoid weather that was blocking its route to ORD. I tried calling C90 for a hand off and could not get a response. When C90 called me I tried to tell them that CRJ would not accept direct ORD. I was told to 'listen' and to bring all arrivals to the WATSN arrival; which required vectoring all arrivals; previously set up for direct ORD; to get a 090 heading. This created an extremely unsafe situation; and led to two airspace violations because aircraft were placed in unsafe proximity with each other. Upon seeing that CRJ and MD80 were to conflict; I asked C90 for any help (i.e. a Northeast heading; direct STYLE; or a north heading). I was told that the aircraft had to enter the airspace on the arrival. I took three phone calls from C90; from two different people; and got two different requests on how to bring aircraft to ORD. We could have had a very catastrophic situation. C90 called after the incident and asked me why I wasn't going direct ORD. I finally; out of frustration; told them I'm doing what I am told; and that I'm being given no options. A better way for bringing arrivals to ORD from the southeast needs to be studied. Having us route arrivals; so they have to descend under departures; and be vectored away from the airport in order to turn to the airport seems silly and creates a huge amount of workload for the Controller. In addition; it leads to possible events like this.
I was conducting RADAR OJT at the Bearz sector. We were feeding ORD Runway 27L on the WATSN1 arrival at seven miles in trail; 300 KTS. Developing convective weather resulted in C90 putting us in the hold on very short notice. Since the developmental was very inexperienced I elected to issue holding clearances. The published holding pattern is at HALIE intersection; and is not a fix which defines the arrival procedure. This required re-routing of the seven aircraft on frequency. Shortly after all aircraft were in the hold; C90 called saying they would take the aircraft direct ORD seven miles in trail; 250 KTS. The aircraft were started in as C90 requested. The first in line was a CRJ level at 12;000. I advised the CRJ of observed moderate to heavy precipitation to the north and northwest of HALIE and asked the pilot to advise how it looked to him. CRJ replied he would like to deviate to the right about fifteen degrees to a 330 heading. At this time C90 refused to take the hand off. My D-Side was attempting to coordinate with C90 on how they would take the CRJ. They said they wanted all the aircraft back on the WATSN1 arrival; about ten miles east of the CRJ's position. My trainee turned the CRJ to a 090 heading; but this did not prevent the aircraft from entering C90's airspace. I then had to turn two other aircraft that had started in direct ORD. MD80; who had just been issued descent clearance from 13;000 to 12;000 was in trail with the CRJ prior to the turn east. I intervened in time to climb the MD80 to 13;000 and to a 130 heading; avoiding an operational error. Don't expect C90 to cooperate when there is weather between the arrival fix and the airport.
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Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.
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