Commercial Fixed Wing
Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Air Traffic Control Time Certified In Pos 1 (yrs) 7.0
Time Pressure; Situational Awareness; Distraction; Confusion; Workload
ATC Issue All Types; Conflict Airborne Conflict; Deviation - Track / Heading All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance; Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence
Air Traffic Control Provided Assistance; Flight Crew Took Evasive Action; Flight Crew FLC complied w / Automation / Advisory
Procedure; Human Factors; Environment - Non Weather Related; Airspace Structure; Aircraft; Staffing; Weather
I was paged back to be Tracker and when I arrived; it was already too busy for any reasonable controller to work. We were getting every arrival coming from adjacent sectors with no in trail and no plan. Some were direct and some were just on headings. The Radar Assist had just gotten position certified the session prior and was in over their head for this amount of traffic (although they did well; I think a seasoned CPC on the Assist would have been more helpful). At one point; two aircraft got within 5 miles and responded to TCAS. I believe the controller turned the one aircraft right; but the pilot turned left; so it may have been a pilot deviation. The next sector was not taking handoffs and I don't blame them because they were holding. Because of the lack of coordination between Traffic Management Unit (TMU) and the arrival sectors; safety was compromised more than I have ever seen.TMU needs to start coming up with plans earlier and planning on weather situations before every aircraft in the country ends up 50 miles from the airport when it gets shut off. Supervisors need to communicate with all areas impacted when they come up with a plan.
A Controller working the Tracker position at the Center observed an IFR aircraft respond to a TCAS/RA in response to other IFR traffic. The sector was extremely busy due to traffic not being sequenced for the arrival airport from the previous sectors and weather deviations.