Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Situational Awareness; Communication Breakdown
ATC Issue All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
General None Reported / Taken
Procedure; Human Factors
Air Carrier X was on the Portland River Departure which is a RADAR vectored SID. Air Carrier X was filed TIMEE.J15 which is a left turn out to join. DH8's are to be turned out of the departure corridor at 3;000 feet due to jet departure climbing out to 9;000 feet. I issued Air Carrier X a 'left turn to TIMEE to join J15' out of 4;000 feet because that is when the aircraft checked up on departure. I observed Air Carrier X start to make a right turn out into the north departure corridor I reissued the left turn to TIMEE and Air Carrier X seemed kind of confused and was out of around 7;000 feet. This is during our morning departure rush and I told PDX ATCT to 'hold departures' because Air Carrier X was having trouble navigated. The ATCT said that they had two jets to go and then departures would be held. I then told the ATCT to stop all departures at 6;000 feet due to the DH8D being now directly into the departure corridor opposite direction climbing out of 7;000 feet. This was a very unsafe situation for the ATCT to not hold departures when requested by the Departure Controller. There could have been an in flight emergency or another situation that was going on. The Departure controller is the IFR authority here at PDX. Air Carrier X finally went direct TIMEE and I was then able to resume normal departure operations. The ATCT needs to be aware that during certain situations outside their airspace sometimes aircraft need to be held on the ground. This needs to be reminded to them that this should be an immediate action and not when is convenient to them.
P80 Controller voiced concern regarding PDX Tower's failure to hold all departures when directed due to previous departures route/heading confusion.