Small Transport; Low Wing; 2 Turboprop Eng
Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Air Traffic Control Time Certified In Pos 1 (yrs) 21
Communication Breakdown; Confusion; Troubleshooting; Time Pressure
ATC Issue All Types; Conflict Airborne Conflict; Deviation - Track / Heading All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Air Traffic Control Separated Traffic
Procedure; Human Factors; Airspace Structure
First I would like to explain that I rated this situation as a Level 5 Complexity because it involves working with Port au Prince Center.  They are nice enough people but their English is limited; their control skills very limited; and they get very testy when you are not willing to 'let them' separate the airplanes in their airspace.  I often over-restrict the traffic they are giving me because they simply cannot be trusted.  This is not just my ranting.  I assure you that 100% of the controllers and supervisors in the Ocean area would agree.  I am not exaggerating.  100%.   I had just assumed the sector.  Aircraft X was already an estimate passed to ZMA.  I do not remember if I took the estimate on Aircraft Y or if the previous Controller had approved it.  But Aircraft X was coordinated at FL340; and Aircraft Y was coordinated at FL 320.  Both aircraft were departing MTPP; coming over JOSES Intersection; going to different destinations.  I had tracked up the data block for Aircraft X.  It is a [type specified]; so he is climbing very slowly.  I get everything else finished and then I see the target for Aircraft Y; so I track him up.  By the way; when we had HOST; these targets would auto acquire much earlier; because of the way the flight plans processed.  But now with ERAM; it is more difficult to get flight plans into the system.  And we cannot do just a 7 amendment on the MTPP departures; because ERAM allows the SID from MTPP to process into our system.  But ERAM does not recognize this SID.  So; we cannot just depart the proposal.  We cannot do a 7 amendment on the proposal.  We have to do a 6-7-10 amendment at JOSES; which means there will never; ever be any auto-acquisition prior to our boundary.  Thanks ERAM.   There is an international NOTAM for the aircraft to call us 10 minutes prior to the boundary.  Most of them do not do it.  Aircraft X did not.  Thank God Aircraft Y did.  When he checked in the first words out of my mouth were; 'Traffic; 12 o'clock; 17 miles; same direction; much slower; same altitude.  Do you have him on your TCAS?'  When he said 'no' I told him to standby.  I called MTPP Center to get control.  Now; please realize it sometimes takes these people 3 or 4 minutes to even pick up the phone.  They work at their own pace.  They picked up pretty quickly because I had I spoke very loudly and had a sense of urgency in my voice.  I asked for control on Aircraft Y to separate him from Aircraft X.  Their response was; 'Miami; we have issued restrictions to separate the two aircraft.'  I said; 'It ain't working.  They are going to hit each other.  Can I have control?'  They gave me control.  I turned the Aircraft Y 90 degrees right to separate.  I also said stop climbing.  With those actions; I just barely ended up with 5 miles.  I realize there is nothing that can be done about a foreign facility.  We are just going to have to trust them even less; and make them more resentful about being treated like children instead of controllers.  The one thing that could be done to help would be to give us more controllers in my area; so that we can staff the D-side at R43 all of the time.  Often; we one man the sector; and we muddle through; even though passing a few estimates (everything is manual; no automation at all) can take several minutes.  And then typing in the flight plans takes a few more minutes.  All the while; airplanes are calling for whatever.  The FAA does not realize how much manual coordination we do in the ocean.  And they think coordinating with MTPP or SDQ or MBPV or MUHA is the same as coordinating with another FAA facility.  It is not.  We need more people so we can staff the D-side (and sometimes A-side) positions without getting overwhelmed with doing everything solo.  I would love to see some high level FAA person come down and spend a day listening to the MTPP line and the SDQ line to witness the daily chaos we experience.   The other thing that could help is Automated Data Exchange (ADE).  It has helped with MUHA center.  Supposedly we are going to get it with SDQ some time this year.  It needs to be a priority.  I realize that Haiti is too poor and too corrupt to work with effectively; but some kind of ADE with them would be huge.  They still would not know how to separate airplanes; but it would free up our time to help do it for them.
ZMA controller describes problems associated with a foreign facility and ERAM/HOST issues which leads to an airborne conflict that he has to avoid a loss of separation.