Military
Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Air Traffic Control Time Certified In Pos 1 (yrs) 11.5
Communication Breakdown; Confusion; Situational Awareness; Workload
ATC Issue All Types; Airspace Violation All Types; Conflict Airborne Conflict; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Air Traffic Control Separated Traffic
Airspace Structure; Company Policy; Human Factors; Procedure
I was working Sectors 8 and 9 combined yesterday with normal traffic. Due to VIP movement at MSP; there was seldom used military airspace that was active FL180 to FL230. Most of the controllers working that evening received a verbal briefing a couple of hours before the airspace was scheduled to go active because all of us had never cleared aircraft into military airspace before. During the briefing; we were told the altitudes that we were required to issue; and the bottom altitude was FL180. The altimeters had been low all day making FL180 unusable. When I sat down to take the sector; the airspace was hot and M98 TRACON started launching a bunch of departures off MSP. They all checked in with me at or climbing to 17;000 ft. I asked the Front Line Manager why the departures were climbing to 17;000 ft. when the airspace directly above was hot at FL180 with low altimeters and he didn't know but advised me that he would call M98. After a few minutes; he came back to me and told me 'Just watch the limited data blocks in the military airspace and make sure they don't descend below about 18;300 ft. MSL and you should be fine.' I advised him that when military airspace is hot; we miss the airspace; not the aircraft in it. It was also very hard to see 6 limited data blocks on top of M98; especially when they were running a 30 mile downwind and final when there were probably close to 40 other limited data blocks in the same 30-mile ring around MSP below the airspace. I voiced my opposition to his reasoning and he shrugged his shoulders; said he didn't think it was an issue and walked away. This same unsafe practice continued for the duration of my shift. My guess is I had maybe 15-20 aircraft that were given to me level at 17;000 ft. directly under the military airspace active at FL180 with low altimeters. With altimeters low and FL180 unusable; the military airspace should have never been active at FL180. The altimeters were low all day and plans should have been changed; but the controller was directed by management that the airspace be activated and the aircraft cleared into the airspace from FL180 to FL230. I was not the controller that cleared the aircraft into the airspace; but I heard the briefing from an Operations Manager stating this and the direction from the Front Line Manager to the controller.
ZMP Controller reported being directed to control traffic at 170 below military airspace at FL180; which was unusable.