Any Unknown or Unlisted Aircraft Manufacturer
Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Air Traffic Control Time Certified In Pos 1 (yrs) 6
Distraction; Human-Machine Interface; Situational Awareness; Time Pressure; Troubleshooting; Confusion; Communication Breakdown; Workload
ATC Issue All Types; Deviation - Track / Heading All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance; Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence
Air Traffic Control Provided Assistance
Weather; Procedure; Human Factors
I was STMC (Supervisory Traffic Management Coordinator) in TMU. I had 2 TMCs working position early in morning. Airlines were filing routes to CLT through ZDC instead of ZID (normal route) due to weather located in ZID. The Command Center called around XA:40 to the TMC and stated that all flights going to CLT filing through ZDC needed to go back on normal route through ZID. The specialist stated they would comply but that 'everyone understands you're putting them back into the weather'. The Command Center said ZID told them the weather was dissipating and they would accept flights. Airline dispatch will not file routes directly into known weather. Approximately 30 minutes later more communication happened from the TMCs to ZDC about letting the pilots fly around the weather through ZDC and ZDC stated they couldn't accommodate that request because there wasn't a coordinated route. We asked ZDC to send us a stop message via the National Traffic Management Log stopping flights to ATL and CLT through ZDC. ZDC complied. Several pilots airborne enroute to CLT or ATL complained to our controllers about the route. I believe some flights did go through ZDC but most were routed into ZID to deviate around the weather. I called the NTMO [National Traffic Management Officer] for Severe Weather at the Command Center and they stated there was no room for ATL or CLT flights in ZDC and if they wouldn't accept routing through ZID (the airlines) then they would have to go all the way around west over Nashville possibly to go around weather; mind you there was no weather in ZDC it was all located in ZID near the ZTL boundary. Understand that the depicted weather was stretching from southern Illinois in a line west to east to Virginia. It wasn't solid but there was plenty of lightning and it was a broken line with tops into the FL400+ range. Basically ZDC was entirely clear of the weather. There was a solid line by XB:30 of traffic going to ATL through ZDC but not accommodating pilot requests enroute to go around seems unsafe to us and requiring them to fly towards the weather to deviate around it seems a poor plan and potentially unsafe. The NTMO also stated that ZID had told them the weather was dissipating and aircraft were able to pick around it. That is fine but I'm still watching the line at XC:22 and the weather is basically south of ZID and in ZTL center at this point with significant lightning strikes and tops still in a broken line. More proactive decision making/collaboration. The weather had been passing through the entire night and couldn't have been a huge surprise in the morning. ZDC stated they needed an organized route to accept planes from us. Well; the Command Center and ZDC never issued an organized route for us. We are the middle man here. If a route was coordinated for all planes going into ZDC to be on then we could have given the airlines/pilots the option for the route into ZDC and complied with whatever program or MIT restriction they needed to accept the planes. Instead; nothing was done except to deny the flights and require them to fly into ZID through the weather to deviate or fly hundreds of miles to the west to go around the far side of the weather or not take off and wait.
ARTCC Supervisory Traffic Management Coordinator reported of confusion relating to routings through and around various centers due to weather.