Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Air Traffic Control Time Certified In Pos 1 (yrs) 27.5
Workload; Troubleshooting; Training / Qualification; Time Pressure; Distraction; Confusion; Communication Breakdown
ATC Issue All Types; Airspace Violation All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Air Traffic Control Separated Traffic; Air Traffic Control Issued New Clearance; Air Traffic Control Provided Assistance
Human Factors; Staffing; Procedure
Very long story short.  I only report a quarter of the events I see because they are all caused by staffing issues and I am won't waste any more time complaining about an issue the FAA so clearly tolerates. Today; while training on the LNR manual; with a Certified Professional Controller (CPC) working the radar; witnessed an event unique to all my years of ATC.  We had been properly informed of military airspace that was going hot at XA:30. (I say that because sometimes we are not properly informed.)  At the time we were vectoring Aircraft X around the VOKE because it was set to go hot at XA:00 and the SAWHI controller at Minneapolis center (ZMP) told the BAEHI controller that the aircraft needed a reroute because the SAW controller would not approve the aircraft going 'over the top' into GRB.  So Aircraft X is south of the VOKE boundary on an east heading descending.  At XA:24 or so; AUWLO sector at ZMP flashed us a hand off on Aircraft Y clearly headed for the airspace.  I told my trainee to call and give AUWLO a heads up that the airspace was going hot.  We called twice; no answer; had other stuff to do; hung up.  A couple minutes later; the aircraft in the airspace about to go hot; AUWLO calls us on the line to take the handoff.  We say 'Isn't VE hot'?  She says; no we pushed it back 10 minutes. Is that a secret to you?  We said yes; and since that has never happened before to me; I said just take the handoff.  Now we start talking about how screwed up this place is.  We are vectoring an aircraft around airspace that we believe is going hot. SAW HI believes it too; because they forced the aircraft around the airspace; which; given another 10 minutes; he would have certainly been through and could have continued on course.  Meanwhile; AUWLO is routing aircraft through the airspace; somehow believing that we can just delay the military whenever we want.  Vigorous conversation ensues involving the sector personnel and the CIC.  CIC leaves to find out what is going on with military.  Now; AUWLO starts to flash another hand off; this time on Aircraft Z; on virtually the same course as the last guy.  Again; AUWLO calls us for a hand off.  What is going on with this guy??  He will clearly be inside the airspace that has been glowing red since XA:30 even if the airspace is delayed until XA+10!  No; the AUWLO controller says; the VE is cold now until this guy gets through.  No; we say; it doesn't work that way.  We are about to clear a flight of F16s into the airspace that we believe is now going hot at XA+10.  Can't we just keep our military guy away from Aircraft Z; she asks?  No; I say; get your guy out of the airspace.  She does.  Phone immediately starts to ring.  It is the supervisor from MSP asking what the problem is?   Really!  Why can't Chicago Center (ZAU) just delay the airspace when AUWLO wants to?  What is the big deal?  And the CIC has to try to explain how the military works. To a Supervisor!The FAA will get exactly the quality of employees they deserve.  This facility; and obviously ZMP too; is run so poorly that situations like this happen regularly.  There is literally a supervisor at ZMP who has no idea why we use the procedures and protocols that we do regarding military airspace.  Is he another 'One year wonder?' promoted despite his naivety because there are no other applicants for supervisor jobs?  Is he a transfer from some VFR tower that the FAA has now put in charge of carrying out a mission he is ignorant of?  Our facility is full of such individuals.  In my opinion; the controller at AUWLO should be decertified and retrained (find out later that this same situation happened yesterday with AUWLO) The ZMP supervisor should be demoted; retrained; perhaps relocated.  Management should be made to answer for staffing the facility with incompetent individuals.  No one bids on supervisor jobs because it is a horrible position with no authority and management is staffed with incompetent;lazy; low seniority; low knowledge folks that no self-respecting controller could ever take orders from.   This sort of thing will become commonplace if we continue to hire; certify and promote based on criteria other than competence.  It will certainly result in reduced safety in the system.  Staffing is woefully inadequate; as well.  Our TMU; ZMP TMU; AUWLO; SAWHI; all on different pages.  The safety of the pilots we protect is based on a mutual understanding of the procedures we use.  There can be no deviations from that safety without causing risk!  Ask the pilots whether cutting costs is an acceptable reason to risk safety.  How frustrating!
Sector P16 (EAU) wanted to give sector 60 (BAE) a GRB arrival high to go over VOK East; South; West military airspace which was active. SAW sector did not want this so BAE put Aircraft X on a vector to go to the south side of the airspace and handed off to LNR. I continued to work this aircraft on a vector and descended this aircraft for GRB. Sector P04 started flashing Aircraft Z at FL190 landing RAC and he was headed right for the VOK airspace. My D side trainee and his trainer attempted to call sector P04 and ask what they were doing with this aircraft. They said the airspace had been delayed 10 minutes and asked if this was a secret to us. We thought maybe there was a chance that Traffic Management Unit (TMU) knew about this and failed to tell us so we proceeded to tell our CIC in charge and went about and worked this aircraft. Nearly 10 minutes later; sector P04 started flashing Aircraft Z at us landing RAC also at FL190 and also headed straight for the military airspace again. My d side called and asked what they were doing again and the P04 controller said 'Oh after this aircraft it's active'. Meanwhile; we have fighters off of MSN wanting to go into the military airspace. My D side asked her what she would like us to do with the fighters off MSN and the P04 controller asked if we could just separate them from the Aircraft Z. No! This is not how this works. We have numerous problems with the military airspace over the last couple of months. Sector P04 took it upon themselves to delay airspace and failed to tell anyone about it all because they were too lazy to vector aircraft around it. Very dangerous situation. No one except TMU or military officials should be allowed to delay airspace.
Chicago Center (ZAU) Controllers reported a situation where a military airspace is supposed to be going hot in a few minutes. Another sector had an aircraft going into the airspace and the Controllers questioned the other Controller. The other Controller advised them that they have extended the cold time for 10 minutes to allow this aircraft to go through it. A few minutes later another aircraft was handed off to them which will go through the airspace. Controller dialogue ensued. The other sector thought it was ok to delay the airspace for traffic; but the reporting Controller had military aircraft that needed to use the airspace.