Light Transport; Low Wing; 2 Turbojet Eng
Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Situational Awareness
ATC Issue All Types; Conflict Airborne Conflict; Deviation - Track / Heading All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance
Air Traffic Control Issued Advisory / Alert; Air Traffic Control Issued New Clearance; Flight Crew FLC complied w / Automation / Advisory; Flight Crew Took Evasive Action
Airport; Airspace Structure; Company Policy; Procedure
Aircraft X was on a heading for the Visual Approach descending to 5000 feet. Aircraft Y; a jump aircraft; called up for VFR flight following for his jump operations. I radar identified Aircraft Y; reconfirmed his requested altitude and issued traffic to both him and Aircraft X. I also turned Aircraft X 10 degrees left to avoid Aircraft Y's spiraling climb. Aircraft X said he had Aircraft Y on TCAS and was looking. Less than a minute later the Collision Alert went off. I did not issue the 'Traffic Alert' phraseology because turning him was more important; which I did; to a further west heading of 310 degrees. Within 20 seconds after that Aircraft X informed me he was in a TCAS climb. Closest point was approximately 1.5 miles and 800 feet; with Aircraft X turned northwest bound to avoid Aircraft Y. There were no jump operations in progress at the time. Aircraft Y was in his initial climb of the day to start jump operations. I am comfortable with the fact I took positive action to avoid a collision by issuing Aircraft X his vectors to avoid. Furthermore; because of so little time transpiring between Aircraft Y's initial call and Aircraft X's TCAS I feel I used good control judgment and did everything I could in this situation. If Aircraft Y called prior to departing I would have changed Aircraft X's heading to avoid the airport altogether; thereby avoiding the TCAS. We should look at changing the LOA to institute this. A 'heads up' would allow us to prepare and adjust routes accordingly. This is going to continue be a problem; like it always has; with his jump zone being in the Runway 28 arrival path from the south.
P80 TRACON Controller reported an IFR arrival had to respond to a TCAS alert with a VFR parachute jump aircraft even though the Controller had attempted to vector the aircraft away.