Medium Large Transport
Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Air Traffic Control Time Certified In Pos 1 (yrs) 28.5
Workload
ATC Issue All Types; Airspace Violation All Types; Deviation - Track / Heading All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence
Air Traffic Control Separated Traffic
Airspace Structure; Weather
I was working R57/58 combined. We had a front moving in from the west. It was a solid line about 125 miles long. The departures out of MCO were deviating east of course toward the warning areas. We had all of the Rainbow airspace at the normal release altitudes except for Rainbow C; which was hot to FL300. I asked the FLM to get Rainbow C FL240 and above due to weather deviations; and later reiterated that I needed the airspace. The FLM said Sealord would not release the airspace. At that point I was clearing the departures direct BEENO Intersection direct SAV to clear the SUA. Then Aircraft X said he could not go over BEENO due to weather and was turning to a northeast heading to avoid weather. I told the pilot that I understood he was exercising his pilot in command emergency authority and that he would be entering active military airspace. I had my D-side call Sealord to advise them what the aircraft was doing. We then called F11 and told them to stop departures and hold any that were airborne because aircraft were deviating into the active portion of the warning areas. TMU at this point had no plan in place to reroute aircraft and keep them away from the military warning area's. This was a CAR40 event. This happens all too often and is dangerous to aircraft flying too close to convective weather.The warning areas are for training. When we have a known weather event happening we need to advise Sealord what airspace we need in advance and Sealord should reconfigure as necessary to give us the needed airspace. Training should never take priority over safety.
Enroute Controller reports situation where weather is causing many deviations and an aircraft issued a direct to; could not use the route due to weather and possibly violated a warning area.