Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Air Traffic Control Time Certified In Pos 1 (yrs) 3
Human-Machine Interface; Situational Awareness; Time Pressure; Distraction; Workload; Communication Breakdown; Confusion
ATC Issue All Types; Airspace Violation All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Air Traffic Control Issued New Clearance; Air Traffic Control Provided Assistance; Air Traffic Control Separated Traffic
Human Factors; Procedure
SCT TRACON East sector flashed Aircraft X to me a CAT 2 inbound arriving from the NE. There was a busy stream of arrivals inbound and I had yet to take the flash on the aircraft because per the LOA SCT shall either sequence the CAT 2 arrival or coordinate something else via an APREQ. The controller at East did not verbally coordinate; and next thing I knew the aircraft was on my data block (I did not take the flash) and talking to me. According to the LOA with SCT Paragraph 5 c (1) (e) TRACON Shall: Complete a radar hand off on Class B Airspace CAT 1 [and] tower approved CAT 2 arrivals inbound from the NW at or descending to 2500 MSL. Also paragraph 5 c (2)(b) Tower Shall: When tower CTRD [Certified Tower Radar Display] is operational sequence and assume control for descent at or South of Mt Soledad all Class B airspace CAT 1 and tower approved CAT 2 arrivals. I sequenced Aircraft X aircraft in behind a B737 arrival at Aircraft X's 9 O'clock; which the pilot had in sight. When I called the East Controller to ask; 'Isn't a [aircraft X type] a twin engine?' the response was 'I don't know'. There was no verbal communication and the hand off was forced onto my tag with an OK function. This is not the proper hand off procedure; I was waiting for the EAST controller to call and coordinate the un-sequenced Aircraft X arrival; which I would have approved had the coordination been done in a timely matter. To prevent a re-occurrence I would suggest the wording in the LOA be changed to specifically say. 'TRACON Shall Sequence all CAT 2 aircraft inbound to land; unless otherwise coordinated.'
SAN Tower Controller describes a situation where the TRACON Controller forces a data block onto their position symbol and switches the aircraft to Tower's frequency without any coordination. SCT East Sector Controller violated the LOA between the two facilities.