Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Air Traffic Control Time Certified In Pos 1 (yrs) 9.5
Communication Breakdown; Situational Awareness; Workload
ATC Issue All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence
Air Traffic Control Issued Advisory / Alert; Air Traffic Control Issued New Clearance
Company Policy; Human Factors; Weather
For approximately 3 hours during this shift Area 4 ZOB was extremely busy to the point of being unsafe. There was a large amount of weather just south of Area 4 airspace in ZID. During the busy traffic Area 4 was working 'red' sectors with aircraft from every direction that had routes to try to avoid the weather and the weather was building so the routes were crumbling and creating excessive deviations. There was no specific situation that I recall as being unsafe; just the fact that everything was pointed at one sector while the weather was increasing and making the scenario more and more unsafe. I don't believe anything was done to lessen the amount of traffic burdening Area 4. I believe that the TMU (Traffic Management Unit) play-books that were in effect actually created the issue. This is purely speculation on my part because TMU runs play-books all day every day and even though I have asked to be more informed about these play-books nobody will include it in any aspect of my job. I get told to work the traffic and 'let them deviate.'During busy points [another sector] was opened which is a reasonable idea except that this sector is rarely if ever open. I can't recall the sector open at all in 2019 while I was working. This adds to complexity because of the unusual situation.Controllers were asking the Supervisor to get MIT (Miles in Trail) restrictions in place or slow down traffic to the sectors but it wasn't happening. The Supervisor that was assigned to Area 4 that shift normally works in [another area] and in my opinion isn't very familiar with Area 4 since he has never work an actual sector in Area 4.Due to the weather I encountered a frequency issue at high altitude in my sector that created extra workload during an already buy session. It was never reported to maintenance that I know of. 1) TMU needs to get better at analyzing weather and its impact on sectors and areas. The plans that TMU makes need to be actually communicated to areas and sectors so that if something changes everybody (to include TMU) can adapt to and make changes. I don't feel that TMU is useful at ZOB. When I talk to TMU about how useless they are they tell me lip service about Command Center. 2) If sectors like [the one that was opened] exist they shouldn't only be opened for check rides and busy days. They need to open and have people be proficient at them.3) Supervisors should know about the area they are working in so they can actually help.4) I would love for one of my reports to actually change something since I bring up safety and the uselessness of TMU in all my reports. I am losing faith in [the ATC reporting system] just like the FAA because nothing ever gets fixed. When something goes wrong on a day like today it isn't going to be pleasant for anybody. I hope to not be involved.
ZOB Center Controller reported sectors in their area were unsafe during weather deviations due to insufficient flow control and lack of Supervisor's proficiency.