2011-12 · NASA ASRS report 986148
ZMA Controller described an uncoordinated airspace entry when an adjacent sector apparently dropped data block information disabling the automatic hand off function.
I relieved the Controller from the R60 position and was in the process of arranging my data blocks to my settings when I noticed a limited data block south of ZQA VOR. I flight read the code thinking it might be a ghost target or false beacon code that sometimes occur at this sector and then I realized it was a valid flight plan. I immediately started the track on the aircraft and it correlated to the flight plan of a B737. I then attempted to communicate with the aircraft and got no response. I initiated a call to Sector 58 and asked the Controller to call out for the B737 and if he was on his frequency to transfer communication to me at R60. The B737 checked in on the frequency and I had the aircraft IDENT to establish if this was all correct and the aircraft IDENTED and RADAR was again established with the B737. After this was all completed I initiated a hand off to the next sector and after the hand off was accepted I transferred communication to the other Controller at Sector 40. I advised my D-Side to get me the information on the B737 via flight progress strip and I then wrote down the previous actions on the flight progress strip. The only recommendations that I can make is to have controllers pay attention to their actions; this is the third incident we have had were controllers have dropped the wrong flight from their scopes. In the many years that I have controlled traffic; anytime I remove a data block or even remove a flight plan from the system I always pay very good attention to my actions and my responses from the crud messages to make sure I did the correct action. I have noticed people tend to move to the next planned action before finishing the current action at hand.
[Narrative #2 has no additional information]
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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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