Small Aircraft; High Wing; 1 Eng; Fixed Gear
Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Air Traffic Control Time Certified In Pos 1 (yrs) 10
Confusion; Situational Awareness; Time Pressure; Training / Qualification; Workload; Communication Breakdown
ATC Issue All Types; Conflict Airborne Conflict; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance; Inflight Event / Encounter CFTT / CFIT
Air Traffic Control Issued New Clearance; Air Traffic Control Provided Assistance
Human Factors; Procedure
On Date at XA:10; the west side of the weekend split configuration was running approaches into ZZZ Runway XX. They had Aircraft X IFR doing the RNAV Runway XX approach and a flight of 2 Aircraft Y; come in for break traffic. I was working the east side of the weekend split. At XA:07 the Local Control at ZZZ Tower calls to ask what's the sequence between Aircraft X and the flight of 2 / Aircraft Y. West Controller told them that the 2 / Aircraft Y are going for the break; thus they call the sequence as they choose where the break point is.A minute or so later we see the IFR Aircraft X start a left-hand turn off the approach at 1;100 and proceeds to do a 360. Then another 360. At no point does the Local Controller call to APREQ (Approval Request) this. The TRACON CIC at the time calls the Tower CIC to ask what Aircraft X is doing / if he had canceled IFR and was told that there was nothing they could have done with him with the sequence we provided and that he was still IFR. This is very troubling to hear as it shows that the Tower Controller does not only [not] know how to work break traffic; but worse; they chose to spin an IFR aircraft on a 3-mile final below the MVA. This is plain unsafe and dangerous. ZZZ Tower has a culture of spinning VFR aircraft in all quadrants of their airspace when they get busy. This I believe; is a contributing factor as their tool box does not include; 'Extend your downwind; I'll call your base.' [I recommend] training for the Tower staff.
TRACON Controller reported a MVA violation when the Tower spun an arrival below the MVA.