Commercial Fixed Wing
Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Air Traffic Control Time Certified In Pos 1 (yrs) 15
Confusion; Workload; Time Pressure; Distraction; Human-Machine Interface; Situational Awareness
ATC Issue All Types; Conflict Airborne Conflict; Deviation - Altitude Overshoot; Deviation - Track / Heading All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Ground Event / Encounter Ground Equipment Issue; Inflight Event / Encounter CFTT / CFIT
Air Traffic Control Provided Assistance; Air Traffic Control Issued New Clearance; Air Traffic Control Issued Advisory / Alert; Air Traffic Control Separated Traffic
Airspace Structure; ATC Equipment / Nav Facility / Buildings; Chart Or Publication; Procedure; Company Policy; Human Factors
I'm working two radar sectors combined. Total normal for the summer. Even if it wasn't normal we don't have the staffing to split it off. I'm working about X airplanes at the time. Sure; not a lot. Two airplanes are going the same direction. I separate the two airplanes via altitude separation. One's an IFR small aircraft (Aircraft Y) west bound on the airway at 10;000 feet. The other is a VFR small aircraft (Aircraft Z) west bound restricted at 9;500 feet wanting 10;500 feet. There's an air carrier jet (Aircraft A) which was a departure off of PSP heading east bound. Then there's this IFR small aircraft (Aircraft B) at 14;000 feet without a proper scratchpad flashing at me from the Center from the east. There are thunderstorms in and around the area so I suspect it's someone deviating. So I call the flight data and get a full route. Of course; thunderstorm or not; it's a bad route. I don't take radar; I have some time to deal with that issue later. Now here are the two players. The first one is what this whole story is about: Aircraft X.I release Aircraft X on the RNAV departure. I then go over and deal with the skydiver at the Banning Airport (BNG). This is a problem. It's been somewhere between 2 to 4 years since someone [opened] a skydiving joint in the middle of a pass in between two large mountains. Many reports [have been filed] about this. Now; I will give you all this much; the skydiving is finally depicted on the VFR chart.However; the folks at SCT have dropped the ball. There's no Letter of Agreement (LOA) with us and the BNG skydiving operation. We have an LOA for every other skydiving organization within SCT. There's no definitive anything on what should or shall happen with any of the procedures. We have a little piece of paper taped to the radar sector for controllers to spout off on the recorded line to invoke their Article 65 rights. Doesn't that seem like a glaring issue? Is it because no one has died yet or there haven't been enough TCAS RAs or significant event/MORs (Mandatory Operation Report) filed yet to have to worry about it? The BNG jumper calls two minutes. I give my two minute call. I call the Hemet sector and give them the notice that the jumper is two minutes out. [I have] to coordinate with a separate sector about a jump zone that is on the border of three airspaces and there's nothing written anywhere about who's responsible for what?The initial altitude for departures off of 31L is 8;000 feet. The lowest altitude you can issue off of 31L is 5;000 feet. There was about a two year period where it was 400 feet but that changed when PSP was absorbed into SCT. I'd like to mention to everyone that's ever seen the craziness of the Minimum Vectoring Altitudes (MVA) of PSP that the Cath1 departure is runway heading until about 5ish miles before it's a right turn to the east into the valley. So the Aircraft X goes up the final (if you will) to Runway 13R. The MVAs look scary but it's a pretty clear shot...albeit not for very long at all. JEXOT which is the Final Approach Fix for Runway 13R is supposed to be crossed at or above 2900 feet which is 7.5 miles north of the airport. It was also 10 miles visibility and Sky Clear that day. Upon Aircraft X's second call he checked in either at 3;000 or leveling at 3;000. Either way; it wasn't what it was supposed to be. I was literally in disbelief. I asked him again; 'Verify assigned altitude?' To see an aircraft where he was at there at 3;000 feet wasn't shocking. It gets a little warm in the summer time at PSP. Climb rates are bad. Once it was verified; it was clear there was a problem. I solved it. I issued 'Climb and maintain 8;000.' I think I said it twice just in case.[I was told] I should have issued a low altitude alert. The FAA 7110.65 says; 'low altitude alert check your altitude immediately the MVA in your area is...' The altitudes are a little hyperbolic but it's the truth. Look at the MVAs. They're insane and there are a lot of them. I didn't assign 3;000 feet. He needed to climb. I believe the .65 literally says; 'Give first priority to separating aircraft and issuing safety alerts as required in this order.'  That's what I did. I separated the plane from the terrain. So Aircraft X is up to 8;000 feet. He's flying the departure. Everyone's separated. He's passing traffic so I assign a higher altitude. 'Aircraft X climb and maintain 15;000.' He reads back 16;000. I immediately catch it and fix it. He clears a higher MVA so I want to turn him on course. I tell him; 'Aircraft X turn left heading 360 when you are able proceed direct to YUCCA.' We do this 1;000 times a day. He reads back 260. I catch immediately. 'Negative; 360.' Honestly; I don't think I used his callsign. That's on me. But he reads it back. Should be fine right? I'm guessing CRM (Crew Resource Management) wasn't optimal that day. He definitely turns right; not left; to a 260 heading. I think it was at this moment that I noticed a VFR aircraft departing the BNG airport within two minutes of jumping. I say; 'Safety alert (almost ironically I know since I didn't say low altitude alert with the Aircraft X)' to the BNG jump aircraft and I inform him about the traffic.I know there are safety alerts even though the phrase safety alert isn't phraseology. It gets the message across. I hold the jumper and ask if he's talking to the departure. Unsurprisingly he's not because the departing traffic isn't on the UNICOM.  That's when I notice the Aircraft X is turning right instead of left. Now he's heading for terrain and two unsuspecting small aircrafts. I deem that trying to turn back to the left would be a catastrophic decision. I felt that just continuing the right turn but stopping the climb would be the absolute safest decision. So; phraseology didn't work the first time so I go to plain language. I say something to the effect of; 'Aircraft X it looks like you turned right instead of left. That's okay; just continue your right hand turn to a heading of 030 and just stop your climb for traffic.' Not sure if it matters or not at this point but I did ask the Aircraft X; about two minutes before; when he was out of 3;000 for 8;000 that I wanted to triple check to make sure that he was assigned 3;000 by clearance delivery.So because I had said that; I was a little concerned that maybe the Aircraft X would think that he was in trouble and he might not have been as responsive as I would have liked him to be. That's why I said the whole 'that's okay' bit. I just didn't want him to go into a mountain and I didn't want him to say; 'you said right not left' all the while he's not turning. It happens way too often. So I stopped his climb. Well; I asked him to...but he didn't. He was at about 8;100 feet when I said stop your climb. He wasn't exactly climbing at 4000 feet a minute either. I could have said climb and maintain 090 but he was converging with a small aircraft that was out of 9;300 feet for 9;500 feet and another small aircraft above that guy at 10;000 feet. Sure I'd have 'separation' but I didn't want a TCAS RA. I had hoped he could level off at or around 8;500 feet or so; clear the MVA; not get a TCAS RA and be on with this show. But he kept climbing. I saw this and used a more authoritative voice and said stop your climb for traffic. I probably could have called traffic but there was a lot going on at the time. I might have called traffic but I don't think I did to the Aircraft X.  Center was crying for me to take a hand off on a guy. I told them I couldn't take him. They refused to accept that an answer and kept calling. The VFR aircraft at BNG was posing a dangerous threat. The Aircraft X was turning away from a mountain. I was trying to tell the other two small aircraft about each other but I felt I kept getting blocked. Eventually; the Aircraft X stopped climbing. He said he had traffic in sight. There was no MVA violation with the high terrain. There was no TCAS RA. I got the Aircraft X back on course. I climbed him up and got him on the way. The VFR departure eventually cleared and the skydiver let out skydivers. It all worked out.The Low Altitude Alert (LA) never went off on the radar scope I was working. Hard to believe right? I thought so too. I was shocked about the LA alert going off.This is clearly a pilot deviation. It seems apparent it's a CRM issue. Please intervene and get us an LOA with the Banning jump zone and SCT.The FALCON program that SCT uses is faulted. The LA never went off on the scope. And if I missed it initially; surely it didn't go off continuously over several minutes and thousands of feet in the climb. There's a bug that needs to get addressed with that system.
SCT TRACON Controller reported an air carrier aircraft had departed its assigned altitude below the minimum vectoring altitude and was on a conflicting track with an aircraft departing a satellite airport.