Widebody; Low Wing; 4 Turbojet Eng
Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Air Traffic Control Time Certified In Pos 1 (yrs) 2
Workload; Time Pressure; Situational Awareness; Human-Machine Interface; Distraction; Confusion
ATC Issue All Types; Deviation - Track / Heading All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance
Air Traffic Control Provided Assistance; Flight Crew Requested ATC Assistance / Clarification
Procedure; Human Factors
Aircraft X was descending on the MARNR4 Arrival.  He was issued Runway 16R.  They usually plan Runway 16L; which is what he programmed into his FMS when he began the MARNR4 arrival.  (This arrival along with the HAWKZ has to have a runway loaded to fly it; this is part of the problem.)  When I issued Runway 16R; his FMS lost lateral and vertical guidance (which is unsafe but normal) and he said 'Aircraft X request heading off the arrival due to runway change.' This has been a problem for months and must be fixed if we want to keep using these arrivals.  Fortunately there was no traffic around but if these continue we won't always be so lucky.The facility tries to minimize these issues; due to the political pressure behind them.  First they said that this issue is only with certain airlines.  And we told them they were wrong.  Now they say that these issues are an aircraft maker problem and only exist in specified different type aircraft; obviously they are wrong about that too.  These issues occur with all types of aircraft on these arrivals.  Controllers keep saving the day every time these aircraft lose lateral and vertical guidance on the arrivals. The issue needs to be fixed immediately.
S46 Controller switches a heavy jet to a different runway. The jet loses FMC data because of the switch and requests a vector to restart the approach.