Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Air Traffic Control Time Certified In Pos 1 (yrs) 6
Situational Awareness; Distraction; Confusion; Communication Breakdown; Time Pressure; Workload
ATC Issue All Types; Conflict Airborne Conflict; Deviation - Track / Heading All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Air Traffic Control Separated Traffic
Human Factors; Procedure
I was working all four arrival gates at AR3. I had Aircraft X descending on the LDORA2 RNAV arrival out of about FL190. Aircraft Y is made yellow on my scope and DR4 gets on the landline and says 'Aircraft Y I forced on your scope is direct MTJ at 170; can you force your Aircraft X down?' I responded 'Wilco'. I then told Aircraft X to expedite his descent through 160 to help the controller out. The two aircraft were on converging courses about 14 miles apart. I put a *T line on Aircraft Y to MTJ to find out that direct was not close to my arrival; but directly head on. I had to vector Aircraft X off the arrival to a 090 heading to avoid a loss of separation. I then heard the DR4 controller issue a heading of 260 to Aircraft Y; but had I not taken immediate action they would not have remained separated.The D01 SOP Pre-Arranged Coordination Procedures 'Look and Go' language is way too vague and gives departure controllers too much leeway. I feel this causes problems and events like this far too often. The old language was far more restrictive in that it only allowed 'Look and Go' on Denver departures I believe. This is not adequate either; but I believe a happy medium could and should be reached.
D01 controller describes a situation where an aircraft is displayed on his scope by another controller. Displaying controller asks other controller if he can miss his displayed aircraft. Separation is ensured by the controller turning his traffic 90 degrees away from the displayed traffic.