Medium Transport; Low Wing; 2 Turbojet Eng
Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Air Traffic Control Time Certified In Pos 1 (yrs) 2
Workload; Fatigue; Situational Awareness; Confusion; Communication Breakdown
Airspace Violation All Types; Deviation - Track / Heading All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence
Air Traffic Control Provided Assistance; Air Traffic Control Issued New Clearance; Flight Crew Returned To Clearance
Human Factors; Weather
I was the FR3 [Final Radar 3] controller working 34R.  We were in a 'trip' situation but occasionally I had the opportunity to get the visual on the downwind.  Weather was building SE of APA and I notified TM [Traffic Management] that aircraft on the downwind needed to deviate east of the weather making it difficult to keep spacing with them and the aircraft established on final.  I could see that 35L and 35R had a lot of aircraft and were frequently vectoring outside of the dump and across the final.  The TM told me he'd rather I vector all of the sky as long as I could get them in because the other finals were busy.  There was a five mile gap between the two weather cells indicating light to severe precipitation; it was outside the dump box just west of APA and the TM said I'd be fed the downwind there.  I was getting aircraft on different headings between 170-190 and at different altitudes 110 or 120.  This proved to be exhausting as I continued to work deviating aircraft outside my airspace.  DR4 [Departure Radar] was the airspace I was in and they had aircraft departing DEN that they needed to climb but because no headings or airspace was coordinated or delegated it greatly increased my workload and theirs.  Regularly I asked my aircraft for pilot reports; told them my plan and the depicted weather.  The worst report I was given was occasional moderate turbulence.  The pilots were becoming increasingly concerned about these weather cells; when I told the TM [Traffic Manager] he said there was nothing else to be done as long as the worst reports we had gotten through that airspace was moderate turbulence and heavy rain.  There was increased pressure to continue because of the volume of arrivals in the airspace.  Until Aircraft X informed me he had been hit twice by lightning and was encountering severe turbulence.  As I was trying to ask him if he was ok; his company 15 miles behind him Aircraft Y said he was deviating to stay away from that weather to a 230 heading.  Immediately I told TM the report and that I couldn't accept any more aircraft through there.  One of the weather cells had moved directly over the 34R final and I was given no further assistance on how to get these aircraft on the ground.  I managed to get Aircraft X on final and was later notified by the monitor that an aircraft reported the downwind to be like 'Saint Elmo's Fire'.   Aircraft Y was now headed deep into DR4's airspace and towards a 120 MVA while he was level at 100.  I had to coordinate with DR4 to miss the aircraft on my own and when I tried to inquire with the Aircraft his intentions he went NORDO.  He began to call out to me over and over again; I could hear the rain and turbulence that he was encountering.  Over and over I issued a climb and turn. I tried to advise him of terrain and the only response I heard was garbled. When I finally got him back he advised me that the weather was too loud for him to hear me.  He wanted another runway and I continued to work on this with my adjacent finals; the whole time I continued to shout out to TM who never offered me any help from what I could tell. The aircraft went NORDO again and more aircraft were moved out of his way; he showed up on the adjacent finals frequency and finally made it in to 35L.  I have no idea if the aircraft were damaged in the process but everyone landed ok.  I was extremely shook up over the issue.  I was given an 18 minute break and told to come back and work final again which I told him I couldn't do because of fatigue.The volume of arrivals was too high for the amount and severity of weather.  I feel like I was put in a bad position and so were the aircraft.
D01 Controller describes a situation where two aircraft are deviating due to rain and lightning.  One aircraft is NORDO and in a higher MVA than the aircraft is.