N90 Controller described a conflict event when EWR departure traffic was restricted from entering ZNY's airspace; a runway change was being conducted at LGA; weather was forcing deviations and a read back was missed.
Synopsis
N90 Controller described a conflict event when EWR departure traffic was restricted from entering ZNY's airspace; a runway change was being conducted at LGA; weather was forcing deviations and a read back was missed.
Narrative
I had taken RADAR on Air Carrier X. He was departing EWR and being RADAR vectored to intercept the COL350 radial. Air Carrier X should have been climbing to 6;000. ZNY (DIXIE Sector) had just called to say that I had to hold all of their aircraft. I was vectoring aircraft around weather; other aircraft; and in the confines of the south airspace. Someone in LGA sector yelled out 'What are you doing with Air Carrier X?' I immediately looked up to see that he was climbing out of 6;500; he was head on with a LGA arrival. The arrival was heading westbound; not normal; because LGA Tower was in the middle of switching runways. I didn't think that I was talking with Air Carrier X; but I called out to him anyway. I gave him instructions to descend; he never responded. I continued to reach out to Air Carrier X and issued a Traffic Alert but there was no response. The EWR Departure Controller told him to descend to 6;000; and the LGA Controller had the LGA Arrival climb to 8;000. I think that this happened because of several contributing factors: LGA runway change; ZNY closing the door on the departures; weather and not catching the read backs. I don't think that there is one thing that can be done that would have changed this situation. I think it was many factors that just multiplied the severity of this scenario.
Second reporter narrative
Due to many go arounds on Runway 22 LGA was in the process of switching to the ILS 4. This was going on while I was taking the position. I was holding 3 A/C on the 4 localizer and 2 more around 30 miles SW of the Airport. The 2 aircraft southwest of the airport I was holding @ 7 and 8 thousand via Radar vectors. My first transmission as I sat down was to turn Air Carrier Y west for his final spin for sequence. As the aircraft was westbound I noticed a EWR South departure climbing out of 6;400 and appeared to be headed southwest so I turned my aircraft southwest to parallel the other aircraft and tried to call South to find out what they were doing with their aircraft. (They are supposed to stop their climb at 6;000 until they are clear of our airspace.) As it turned out South Dept did not have the aircraft and It was still on EWR Departure's frequency. At this point I noticed the EWR Departure was in a left turn heading right for my aircraft. I wasn't sure if I should climb or descend my aircraft because if the EWR departure was continuing to climb I was better off descending but if the EWR departure was going to go back down I was better off climbing. Then I noticed the EWR departure level at 7000. That's when I climbed Air Carrier Y to 8000 and issued the traffic. It took a while for Air Carrier Y to configure and climb and separation was lost.One Of the factors leading up to the event was LGA Tower's refusal to change runways despite the fact there was a 20 knot tailwind on 22. It took 4-5 go arounds for them to finally figure this out. This caused the situation where we were stuck with far too many aircraft spinning in our airspace for the runway change. Also the procedure of our arrivals descending to 7;000 to stay above the EWR South departures climbing to 6;000 is not the safest set up. I have seen more conflicts in this area than anywhere else (the COL350 radial) there is no buffer for a pilot or controller to make a mistake and because of the way they cross by the time you catch it it's already too late.
Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.