Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Air Traffic Control Time Certified In Pos 1 (yrs) 23
Communication Breakdown; Confusion; Human-Machine Interface; Situational Awareness
ATC Issue All Types; Airspace Violation All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Air Traffic Control Issued Advisory / Alert
Human Factors; Procedure
I was working the Military Coordinator position; combined with the Denver Arrival position in TMU. We had scheduled airspace for PR2 MOA/ATCAA and Gateway West ATCAA; which is scheduled by ZLC in coordination with RCA Base Ops. All of these pieces of airspace were scheduled from XA:15-XD:15. At XA:13 The ZLC military coordinator sent an automated entry through the NTML [National Traffic Management Log] indicating the airspace was being returned to ZDV/ZLC/ZMP as it was not going to be used. ZLC sent two entries: the first returned the PR2 low/high MOAs from XA:15-XD:15. The second entry returned both the PR2 and Gateway ATCAAs; but only from XA:15-XB:59. Normally the PR2 MOAs and ATCAA are always treated the same; so I was not expecting to see that they were returning the airspace in non-standard pieces and for different timeframes. It also is quite common that when these two airspace groups are canceled; they are canceled for the entire scheduled timeframe; and certainly not for different times. I read the first PR2 cancelation was for the entire period; and this caused me to overlook the different specifics in the second message which were intended to clarify and differentiate the partial cancelation times. I sent automation messages to our operational areas and verbally coordinated all areas were canceled through XD:15. When I returned to TMU at XC:15 I was told that ZLC had called complaining that our controllers weren't showing the ATCAAs as going hot again at XC:00. I then assisted in getting the correct information entered into ESIS [Enhanced Status Information System] and coordinated with our operational areas.We currently have no standardized format on how military airspace between ZLC/ZDV should be returned to us. RCA is the military user of this airspace and is well known for making extremely frequent real-time changes to these areas which cause numerous potential points of failure as the information is entered by ZLC in one system; and by the military in another. This information is frequently not in agreement between the various systems; which leads to confusion; as well as problems with inaccurate NOTAMs being issued; and then not canceled or amended as appropriate. The automated message format for canceling or amending active or imminently scheduled military information between ZLC/ZDV needs to be standardized. Additionally there should be a verbal notification requirement for these real time changes. As this was a very non-standard type of change to these airspace groups I would expect a verbal conversation between the two facilities would have highlighted and clarified the unusual aspects; and would have prevented the problem from occurring.
Denver Center Military Coordinator and Traffic Management Controller reported of problems related to military airspace usage and coordination between ATC facilities.