Light Transport; High Wing; 2 Turboprop Eng
Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Air Traffic Control Time Certified In Pos 1 (yrs) 8
Workload; Troubleshooting; Situational Awareness; Communication Breakdown; Confusion
ATC Issue All Types; Conflict Airborne Conflict; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Air Traffic Control Provided Assistance; Air Traffic Control Issued New Clearance
Aircraft; Procedure; Human Factors
Aircraft X was orbiting over Maxton Airport IFR at 12;000. He had been there before and I was briefed by the controller that I relieved that he would be there for another 5 hours. There was no paperwork in the area detailing this flight or pilots intentions. FAY approach called with information. 'Yeah; that Aircraft Y is still doing parachute drops over Maxton; code [deleted]; climbing to 13;500.' I replied; 'Well you know I have a twelve thousand foot aircraft orbiting in that area?' At this time I observed a limited VFR tag climbing out of about 10;700 north of Aircraft X. Liberty owns 11;000 and above; FAY owns 10;000 and below. FAY replied 'Yeah; can you advise him of our traffic and vector your guy away?' I said 'No; he's on a mission and he's orbiting there. I'll see if he can take a turn; I have no idea what he's doing.' 'I have parachute drops; you know about our guys?' FAY replied. 'I don't know anything about your parachute drops' I told him. 'So where exactly is he going to do it; right where Aircraft X is?' I did not get a reply. I hung up; waited for another aircraft to finish checking in and then called the VFR traffic to Aircraft X. 'Traffic 12 o'clock; 2 miles southeast bound; 11;300; climbing VFR; parachute drops.' The jump aircraft was now in my airspace and still VFR. Aircraft X did not have the traffic in sight and said that he was 'Heading west to de-conflict.' Once separated; I asked Aircraft X if he was aware of the jump operations. He did and advised that he had been on UNICOM with the jump aircraft to avoid each other. I asked Aircraft X if he had responded to a TCAS advisory when making his turn and he said; 'yes'; I notified the FLM (Front Line Manager) immediately. Minutes later I received a call from a different FAY controller who advised that the jumpers would stay at 11;500 instead of climbing to 13;500. A much better idea. After being relieved I listened to the tape at the Operations Manager desk and spoke briefly to the Operations Manager about the situation. Later; the Operations Manager advised me that he spoke to the pilot of Aircraft X and that paperwork for the mission had been filed with Fayetteville approach only. Aircraft X would fly missions at different altitudes but mainly 12;000 feet. That's Liberty's airspace; not approach control. The Aircraft X pilot was also going to send over a mission packet for ZDC.The approach controller knew there was an aircraft at 12;000 in the area of the airport; they had climbed him up there and were still monitoring him. The parachute drop aircraft should have been handed off to Liberty prior to entering Liberty's airspace so that one controller could coordinate with both aircraft to avoid a conflict. Also; moving an IFR aircraft to make way for a VFR is not sound practice. There was no information available at ZDC for Aircraft X flight. The controllers had no idea what the aircraft was doing and what the parameters of the operation were. In fact; Aircraft X's flight plan; as it was received from FAY approach; did not indicate any delay. It was the controller prior to me that had to question the pilot and then update the flight plan to show a 5 hour delay. FAY should have recognized that the aircraft operation was going to be in ZDC airspace and made sure that the paperwork had been forwarded. In addition; our FLMs should have taken the initiative several days ago when the flights first began and requested paperwork on the Aircraft X flight. It is becoming more common to have special military flights with no prior warning or paperwork. If our FLMs would have requested more information several days ago; we could have already had procedures in place to deal with the conflicting parachute jumps.
ZDC Controller reports about confusion with an aircraft in holding and a skydiving aircraft that wanted to drop above the holding aircraft. The pilots of the two aircraft communicated with each other and the skydiving aircraft stayed below the holding aircraft.