B737 Undifferentiated or Other Model
Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Communication Breakdown; Confusion
ATC Issue All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
General None Reported / Taken
Human Factors; Procedure
I was working North departure; approximately 10 minutes into the session; a B737 tagged up on the BRYCC SID. Our local procedures have the Tower clear them to the first fix on the departure to maintain FL100 with expected climb from TRACON. The B737 was about 10 miles north and had not check in yet; I called to see if they were on the frequency; they were not; so I called the Departure Local Controller to have them try to switch them again. I then noticed the B737 climbing out of FL100. After another call to Tower and attempted tries on emergency frequency to have the aircraft called me; I notified Denver Center of the situation in case the B737 kept climbing above FL230 which is the top of our airspace. The Supervisor then had all positions in the TRACON attempt contact and the B737 was found on west departures frequency; they saw that the B737 was climbing out of FL210 ten miles from Denver Center boundary and they sent them to Denver Center. I was unable to talk to the B737 to find out where the error occurred and why they climbed without ATC clearance. I do not know if our facility made any calls to either Denver Center or the Air Carrier to have the pilot call out facility. We are about 3-4 months into RNAV departures. I have had several aircraft check in with me on departure on a SID climbing to FL230. Again our local procedures have them only climb to FL100. I don't know what the clearances look like when printed out but there is definitely some confusion. I would suggest that either the Tower reiterates maintain FL100 or issue the climb to FL230 with the SID restrictions. Because of our landing and departure configuration at the time this event ended up with no separation issues but there are several configurations we use that this could have resulted in loss of separation.
D01 Controller described a failure on the part of an Air Carrier departure to comply with assigned and anticipated altitude restrictions; the reporter listed the recent change to RNAV procedures as a possible causal factor.