Large Transport; Low Wing; 2 Turbojet Eng
Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Air Traffic Control Time Certified In Pos 1 (yrs) 2
ATC Issue All Types; Deviation - Track / Heading All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance; Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence
Air Traffic Control Issued New Clearance; Flight Crew Landed As Precaution; Flight Crew Returned To Departure Airport; Flight Crew Took Evasive Action
Human Factors; Procedure; Weather
I was located at Sector 64; which ended up working Aircraft X back to Miami. My narrative is more of how the incident happened.Aircraft X departed MIA out the HEDLY DTA (Departure Transition Area). This DTA serves the north & east airports from Miami. As the aircraft entered Sector 46 airspace (the first center sector) he said something along the lines of 'Center we just hit moderate or heavy turbulence... we got the heck kicked out of us... that was the worst turbulence we've ever seen'. Sector 46 did a PIREP to reflect just this. As he continued climbing; into sector 65's airspace; he told that controller that he needed to return to Miami and that the FMC had given him some error; and the solution was to land. She turned Aircraft X to the left; and handed him off to me. He told me the same thing; I asked if there was any injuries; to which he replied no; I asked for the location of the severe turbulence; and he gave me the location of the turbulence as 'NNE of DHP at 25 miles out of 15;800.' I gave him direct to the FAF for the runway. He asked for the longest runway; so I changed him to Runway 9. I then descended him and handed him off to low altitude; who coordinated everything with the approach control.I describe in the recommendations how I would fix this. But it should be mentioned that as well - we did not close down the departure after Aircraft X came out and made those statements. In fact; the departure remained open as previous... for the next aircraft to hit the same turbulence and obtain damage. Luckily; this didn't happen. Each year; we take numerous CBI's (Computer Based Instruction) and ELMS (Electronic Learning Management System) that state we should remain 25+ miles away from all known thunderstorms; at the time of this incident; there was a thunderstorm just north of the Miami airport; including directly along most of the WINCO/THNDR/HEDLY/ARKES departures from Miami. The majority of the other DTAs; the south; east and southwest DTAs were mostly clear; with the southwest being the only other DTA with some precipitation in it. The east DTA would have been a straight shot out of Miami. However; due to internal organizational politics; the WINCO/THNDR/HEDLY/ARKES departures are rarely closed 'as aircraft who are not over water equipped have nowhere to go' which is a gross simplification of the actual problem. In reality; when aircraft are rerouted out VALLY/ZAPPA and then taken north further up the coast - this avoids most weather. The aircraft are generally only 20-30 miles offshore; which is still well within the 50 mile requirement. These controllers who work these sectors frequently complain to TMU; which is mostly staffed by these controllers; and eventually outright refuse to work these aircraft. Then; they reopen WINCO/THNDR/HEDLY/ARKES DTAs; which results in aircraft getting caught in Moderate turbulence; instead of avoiding the weather completely.I think that the internal mindset that we have at Miami Center needs to change. First; having 'departure only' or 'arrival only' areas is antiquated and out of date. An area may be primarily an arrival sector; but when weather comes; the situation needs to change. In this case; the coasts of Florida; were mainly clear; with only weather in the CENTER of the state - which conveniently; is where our DTAs are; this results in us launching aircraft into weather when we had a perfect opportunity to avoid it. What I propose is that during areas and times of severe weather overland - the outside 'coastal' sectors of 02/17 and 24/25 restructure their flows. On the east; aircraft depart Miami on a route of KIXAL PIPER CRG and on the west MOOKY BOXKR SZW. This would route all of the departures out over water; and allow for the arrivals to be restricted to further out over water (They already do this today; when the HEDLY/ARKES are deviating to the east; they end up closing the ANNEY/MILSY arrivals and cause aircraft to go further east over the water). This works both ways; when aircraft are able to get over land but not water (if both shores are blocked) you could route departures out HEDLY/ARKES ORL and arrivals over LAL southbound to their airports. If only one shore is blocked; it allows us to do the current SWAP (Severe Weather Avoidance Plan) routing that we have in place today. The difference is that the center never came up with 'SWAP' departure routing; only arrivals.ALL of today's events could have been prevented by routing Aircraft X out VALLY then up the east coast; they would have avoided all of weather; and most of the turbulence. The fact that we play this 'game' of let's mix the weather and aircraft every day; how long are we going to let this happen? There are very easy solutions! We hear a lot that 'the weather is dynamic and ever changing; that's why we can't come up with these routings' however - the weather is nearly almost always air mass thunderstorms over the landmass of the state. Very rarely are their thunderstorms over water; but yet we continue to push people over land.
ZMA Center Controller reported an aircraft that received severe turbulence returned to the departing airport; but the controllers did not close the route the aircraft took.