Small Aircraft; Low Wing; 2 Eng; Retractable Gear
Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Air Traffic Control Time Certified In Pos 1 (yrs) 1
Situational Awareness; Communication Breakdown; Workload
ATC Issue All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Other / Unknown
Air Traffic Control Issued New Clearance
Company Policy; Human Factors; Staffing
When Aircraft X was approximately 2 minutes out from HTS approach; I called with an approval request. HTS Approach did not answer the line. I had something else to do so I hung up; did some work; then called again for a handoff. HTS was still not answering the line. An aircraft was checking in so I hung up and checked him on and then called again for a handoff but there was no answer. At this time a Handoff position was just sitting down but had not been told about the situation. I hung up the line and issued a turn to 180 degrees because I was within 1 minute of the boundary. During this time; my Handoff called again and HTS answered while I was in the process of calling another sector which had already gotten a pointout but on the airway where I now needed to point the aircraft out southbound.When I came back; my Handoff position said to keep him coming. I called HTS approach again and they did not answer. So I called them again and no answer. So I called them again and a man answered who was out of breath. I asked if he could hear the line and he said to keep the aircraft coming but that the radar controller was busy and could not answer the line. Also; of all the traffic I could see; there was one airplane in the entirety of HTS airspace. So I got a 'keep 'em comin' approval from a man who ran across the room and answered a radar line. I've got no idea if this is legal or not. A minute later I called and talked to a female controller and told her the position of the aircraft and that he's already on non-radar routing so I was terminating his radar and they can work him. It is a continuous battle to get HTS Approach to take radar handoffs on any aircraft at most any altitude. From a service perspective for the aircraft; the best thing to do would be to take away all of HTS airspace and let all the surrounding sectors absorb their airspace. Until then; I would propose that all aircraft be non-radar to HTS and on non-radar routing with coordination done at least 5 minutes in advance due to the high volume of their traffic and inability to answer land line coordination.
ZID Center controller reported HTS Approach routinely does not accept handoffs or answer the landline.