King Air 100 A/B
Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Situational Awareness; Confusion
ATC Issue All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Air Traffic Control Issued New Clearance
Human Factors
I was providing OJTI on East/West RADAR combined. A King Air was inbound at 3;000 on a vector to follow a Military Texan trainer. The trainee is very poor in sequencing and scanning but has used most of his/her training time in the TRACON so I wasn't saying much to him; but simply monitoring. Initially the trainee had the King Air on a 210 heading for a base of some sort. He should have been number one to the airport. The Texan was on the opposite downwind. The trainee then based the Texan (050 heading). I believe he realized that the King Air's 210 heading was no good so he went to a 230 heading. I knew what he was trying to do. He was trying to widen the King Air out to go behind the Texan but the 230 heading put them nose to nose about 8 miles apart (230 heading/050 heading). I still didn't say anything to him because I wanted him to 'work it out' on his own since he's so far into training. He still had vertical separation. The King Air then called the airport in sight. After a brief pause; he cleared the King Air for a Visual Approach. These aircraft were head on; 5 miles apart; and had 400 KTS of closure between them. I immediately keyed up and told the King Air to maintain 3;000 for traffic. I believe he didn't answer the initial call so I did it again. He stopped his descent at approximately 2;600 FT. I'm pretty sure I had less than 3 miles and 1;000 FT on converging courses. The King Air climbed back to 3;000 FT before being re-cleared for the visual. No RA's involved and the CA did not activate. I really don't know of anything else I could have done with this particular trainee/situation. I guess from now on he will just have to parrot me while he's training. At 75% of his hours he is horrible and is allowed to continue training. There is not a training session that goes by that a trainer watching him does not have to key the mike to save an imminent situation. I'm really not sure what to do with this kid. There are NO signs of improvement and management continues to try and force him through.
TRACON Controller providing OJT described a probable loss of separation event when the trainee was late in correcting a head on situation; the reporter indicating the student lacks the ability to certify but continues in the training program because of management pressure.