Hercules (C-130)/L100/382
Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Situational Awareness
ATC Issue All Types; Airspace Violation All Types; Deviation - Track / Heading All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance
General None Reported / Taken
ATC Equipment / Nav Facility / Buildings; Human Factors; Procedure
I was working alone with the area combined at one sector on a late night shift. I noticed a flight plan on Aircraft X in my EDST list that was showing overdue. I pulled up the route on my RADAR display and it showed the aircraft was supposed to be abeam OBH. The routing for the aircraft was ZZZ..FLUTY..LEWIS..MLRS..PECO..LEWIS..ZZZ. The route showed that the flight was Northeast bound and would have progressed through Center X Sector 19. Since the aircraft wasn't visible on my display; I called the adjacent sector to inquire if he knew anything about the flight. He said he didn't know anything about it. I informed the OMIC of the lost aircraft. About 15-20 minutes later the OMIC advised me that the aircraft was in Center Y and that there was an error in the route that had routed the aircraft through Center Z. I then got a 'Remove Strip' (RS) on the aircraft. I have filed several Safety Reports previously on this same type of occurrence. The overdue coding on the EDST (URET) flight list is obviously inadequate in highlighting missing/overdue aircraft to a vast number of controllers and/or the action controllers take for these flights is inadequate. Flights show as overdue on the EDST and are unnoticed or the flight plans are casually deleted by controllers. The routes of these flights often send the flight plan through multiple centers and approach controls for many hundred miles and yet no one recognizes that the flights are missing/overdue. We are required to search for overdue/missing aircraft; and the delay in trying to locate these lost aircraft could have serious safety repercussions were they real flights that went missing. The EDST/URET coding for overdue aircraft needs to be changed to highlight overdue aircraft. The current color coding does not sufficiently call attention to overdue aircraft. I suggest the coding be changed to red. Also; controllers need to be more vigilant and aggressive in tracking down lost/overdue aircraft.
Enroute Controller voiced concern regarding the EDST/URET coding for overdue aircraft; noting the color coding should be changed to sufficiently alert controllers.