Commercial Fixed Wing
Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Air Traffic Control Time Certified In Pos 1 (yrs) 9
Confusion; Situational Awareness
ATC Issue All Types; Conflict Airborne Conflict; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Air Traffic Control Issued New Clearance; Air Traffic Control Separated Traffic
Airspace Structure; Human Factors; Manuals; Procedure
We had a departure on a vector climbing to 23;000 ft. I was working the Handoff side. The radar controller recognized he was climbing a little fast and might become a conflict with a point out we had been given. He stopped the departure at 21;000 ft. At this point they had a lot of space between them and the point out was in the vicinity of 20;000 ft. We did not update the data block. I was working on point outs and was no longer worried about the traffic conflict. Based upon the climb rates I felt very comfortable with what happened. I was also on the busier side. The other sector called and asked if our traffic was climbing out to 23;000 ft. I told her we stopped our guy at 21;000 ft. A minute later I called to make a different point out and they asked us how we separated those two. I exclaimed 'We stopped him at 210.' The controller said 'Our guy wasn't out of 210.' She then asked 'Is that a 3 mile zone.' I told her 'I thought they were good.' This was my belief all along. She began to debate with me. As I had other significantly higher duties I said 'I thought it was good. If you have to write it up; write it up.'I told the Radar Controller what the other controller had said. We were both were surprised. He exclaimed 'That is a 3 mile zone.' I called them back and said it was in the 3 mile zone. She said 'They didn't have a 1;000 ft.' I do not recall how I responded. At this point I still felt it was a non-issue; as I do now. I heard the other facility called and lodged a complaint against us; so I am filling this out now. I am very sure their traffic was well out of 21;000 ft when our traffic reached 21;000 ft.
ZNY Center Controller reported that an adjacent sector reported them for having less than the required separation between two aircraft.