PA-28 Cherokee/Archer/Dakota/Pillan/Warrior
Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Situational Awareness
ATC Issue All Types; Inflight Event / Encounter CFTT / CFIT
General None Reported / Taken
Human Factors; Procedure
I was providing OJTI on North RADAR. The traffic and complexity was moderate. An adjacent facility; requested release of an IFR aircraft. The trainee released the aircraft on the SID. A few minutes later the aircraft; a PA28; checked in and said 'Approach the PA28 with you at 010'. The MVA for that area is 016. The pilot's flight plan had his requested altitude at 100. The trainee did not give altitude restrictions to the Tower for the PA28. As per our agreement; if no restrictions are given the pilot is expected to climb to requested altitude or FL200; whichever is lower. After the aircraft checked in at 010 the trainee asked him to 'IDENT'. He then went to another aircraft to issue control instructions. He observed the 'IDENT' feature and told him RADAR contact. The trainee went back to the PA28 to issue him a vector northbound to separate from departing IFR aircraft from another airport. We had lost Mode C for a few sweeps and when it re-acquired; he was still at 010. A low altitude alert flashed on the scope and the trainee gave him the low altitude alert instructions. Only after that; it appeared that the PA28 stayed at 010 until further clearance from Approach. The trainee then climbed him to 100. The trainee did not verify his assigned altitude upon initial call-in. The pilot simply said he was 'at 010'. However; as the trainer; I missed some key factors to this situation as it was unfolding. I was looking at other problematic areas on the scope that I thought needed attention as well. It does not excuse my inability to catch this mistake as it was unfolding as well.
A PA28 departed IFR on a North Departure (heading 300); When he checked in; he reported 'At 1;000'. Normally; IFR departures are assigned their filed altitude or FL200; whichever is lower. In this case; he was supposed to be climbing to 10;000. He failed to check in with his assigned altitude; and I neglected to verify it. I was monitoring his position reference the neighboring airport's departure corridor off of Runway 33; where departures climb on a 300 heading as well. He appeared to be encroaching upon a 33 departure; so I assigned him a heading of 350 to get him away from the departure. I was under the impression that that heading was within the PDVA (Diverse Vector Area). As he began the northbound turn; I noticed that he was still at 1;000. I asked him to verify that he was assigned 10;000. He replied that he was level at 1;000. A low altitude alert then sounded from the STARS. I issued the low altitude alert and climbed him to 10;000. I would recommend that the North Departure off of the airport be changed to a heading of 320; giving 20 degrees of divergence from the neighboring airport's departure corridor. I gave the vector because I was worried about maintaining separation from the neighboring airport's departures. I later found that the PDVA for the airport on the given runway for a right turn was 330. Thus; my misunderstanding of the PDVA caused me to vector the PA28 below the MVA. To prevent this from happening in the future; I will ensure that I am fully aware of the PDVA's for all the airports in my airspace; as well as paying special attention to ensuring that I get a correct read back of altitude assignments.
TRACON Controller described a below MVA event when an IFR departure from a satellite airport failed to climb as expected per procedure.