Regional Jet 700 ER/LR (CRJ700)
Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Confusion; Communication Breakdown; Workload; Situational Awareness; Distraction
ATC Issue All Types; Airspace Violation All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Air Traffic Control Issued New Clearance
Weather; Human Factors; Airspace Structure; Procedure
AR600 was active 250B280; Sector R47 was working the AR600 flights. The AR600 track also overlaps R66's airspace so I took a point out on all the aircraft in AR600. It was an extremely complex situation with weather deviations and AR600 active. I did have a D-Side at the time when we loss separation; he advised me to watch a code and stop CRJ-700's climb to FL250 since we were unsure of what the F-16's intentions were. The F-16 was supposedly MARSA with the KC-135; but the flight of 2 F16's deviated away from the KC-135's instructions. It appeared that the F-16s started following the CRJ-700 for some unknown reason. I originally climbed the CRJ-700 to FL240; then when I thought I had separation from AR600 I climbed the CRJ-700 to FL260; then we noticed that the F-16s turned to the west and were catching up to the CRJ-700; that is when my D-Side told me to stop the CRJ-700 climb to FL250. My D-Side and I were unaware that the F16s were a flight of 2; so we originally thought we had separation between the F-16s and the CRJ-700 aircraft. When there is weather; AR600 should be coordinated prior and management should make a decision if it is feasible or not to approve the activity. I also feel that TMU could have helped out with AR600 and the CLT arrivals since there was weather and aircraft deviating all over the place.
We took a handoff on a CRJ-700 and climbed him to FL240 underneath the track. The F-16 was cleared into AR600 with the KC-135 and began climbing into the block. When the CRJ-700 was clear of the track R66 climbed them to FL260. All of a sudden R47 calls over pointing out that there is a limited at FL260 following the CRJ-700 and quickly gaining. I advise R66 to amend the altitude on the CRJ-700 at FL250 and they do; but aircraft passed through the altitude for a brief moment. R66 soon discovered the limited beacon code was the F-16 and told the Tanker to have the F-16 maintain FL260. Once we re-identified the mysterious limited we relieved it was a flight of 2 F-16s and lost separation for a brief moment. The F-16s were 25 miles west of the AR track he had been cleared into and there was no reason he should have been out there! AR600 is in a terrible location! There has been multiple safety issues associated with it for years! It lies in a very dangerous location due to its proximity of departures and arrivals and spans 2 sectors requiring massive communication. The participating aircraft also sometime assume the airspace is sterile of which it is not! I suggest that AR600 gets moved indefinitely to a location better suited for training missions or completely done away with ASAP!
ZJX Controllers described a restricted area spill out resulting in a conflict event. The reporters claimed the airspace location is problematic and should be relocated.