Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Situational Awareness
ATC Issue All Types; Airspace Violation All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
General None Reported / Taken
ATC Equipment / Nav Facility / Buildings; Human Factors; Procedure
I was working B737-800 Traversing Sector 05. I inadvertently started the hand off to the wrong sector and the aircraft entered another sector without a hand off. I was watching several traffic situations at the time; and was in the middle of a relief briefing. Disallow the ability to hand off an aircraft to a sector if the route line does not penetrate that sector.
I was taking over the R-Side position. We started and completed a position relief briefing. During the briefing a B737-800 was across the boundary of one sector and flashing at another. This is a common flash through point for departures. As I sat down to take over the sector; both the Controller I was relieving and myself noticed that we still had track control. I took the hand off back; began a hand off to the correct sector and called with a verbal hand off. I think that ERAM will have a feature where a data block will pop up on the screen of a sector through which the trajectory or route or a combination of both will travel. Kind of like an automated hand off within 2 minutes of the boundary but it should occur even if the aircraft is flashing at the wrong sector. That would ensure that if there were traffic within the next sector the Controller may have a better chance to notice it than if there were only a limited data block on their screen.
ZDV Controller described a wrong sector hand off event when inadvertently initiating a hand off to an incorrect sector; the reporter suggesting automation help to prevent future occurrences.