Commercial Fixed Wing
Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Situational Awareness; Workload
ATC Issue All Types
General None Reported / Taken
Procedure; Staffing; Human Factors
ZAU was DARC only for 5 hours on the mid shift; despite the fact that there were thunderstorms in the area. There were thunderstorms to the north and south of the sector; causing a huge increase in traffic that was avoiding the weather. In addition; we were having a computer problem in which several aircraft were showing being on the wrong code; when they were in fact not. We did not have any Flight Plan information on dozens of aircraft; and all of this had to be coordinated manually. This situation lasted for 2 1/2 hours. The sector was absolutely inundated with aircraft; and all 3 controllers assigned to the shift were working on the one sector. There is no D-Side functionality when the computer is in DARC mode; adding to the difficulty. We were not provided ETMS flight progress strips that are normally distributed hourly when the computer is taken down for maintenance. Basically; I was working dozens of aircraft that passed through the sector with me having absolutely no idea where they were going. I was so busy starting tracks and coordinating flight plans on the land line that barely had time to look at the scope at all. I was unable to scan the traffic for possible conflictions during most of this time. Routes were often not passed to the next controllers; airspace was violated several times; within the facility and with other facilities. A controller from another area had to alert me to 2 aircraft at the same altitude 10 miles apart merging. One aircraft was at 39;000 FT 10 miles from ORD where he was landing. Despite 3 controllers working as hard as they could; the sector was completely out of control. This was a dangerous and highly unsafe situation; and it all could have been avoided by not taking the computer down in the first place. I deeply resent being put into this situation; I resent that the FLM avoided our area the entire night; I resent that he never lifted a finger to help us or to reach out and have some aircraft rerouted around our airspace. Management routinely allows the Center to go DARC only without any consideration to traffic volume or weather conditions. Safety is simply of no concern to them; they are not the ones that will kill anybody; and it's our problem. I feel we are very lucky we made it through this without any serious incident. Don't go DARC unless absolutely necessary. When you do go to DARC; do so on Saturday or Sunday night when traffic is much lighter. Never go DARC when there is weather. Have an extra controller scheduled when you are planning to go DARC; this can be done without using overtime. Have a flow controller on the midnight shift to look for sector saturation; the FLM's sure as hell are never going to do it. The FLM on duty could have done several things to help. He could have not allowed the Center to go DARC in the first place. He could have paid attention to what was going on in the areas. He could have noticed that our sector was extremely busy. He could have called the adjacent Centers and had aircraft routed away from us to alleviate the volume of traffic. He could have brought us the ETMS strips that are available every hour. He could have ordered that the computer be brought up early when he noticed how dangerous the situation had become. I honestly don't know if he had a clue. Safety is something you never hear about at ZAU anymore; only the appearance of making progress on ERAM seems to be important.
ZAU Controller described a busy/complex and unsafe traffic period during DARC operations noting a number of factors that should be considered by supervisors prior to approving DARC procedures.