Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Air Traffic Control Time Certified In Pos 1 (yrs) 24
Confusion; Situational Awareness; Training / Qualification
Airspace Violation All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Airspace Structure; Human Factors; Procedure
Yesterday I handed off a west bound aircraft which was landing at DWH; level at 060; to I90 Tomball sector. The undirected hand off flashed initially to the I90 DAS sector. Thinking that this was an ERAM anomaly I retracted the hand off and directed the hand off to I90 Tomball. Upon acceptance of the hand off I switched the aircraft to I90 Tomball sector and no further communication with the aircraft or any I90 controllers occurred after that. This afternoon; as colleagues were discussing the recent re stratification of some of I90's airspace it occurred to me that there were some changes made around the NE inbound gates. When I checked the sector map I found that the floor of the I90 DAS sector had indeed been dropped to 060 from its previous floor of 070 prior to the Optimization of Airspace & Procedures in the Metroplex (OAPM) changes last May. I am reasonably certain that I allowed the aircraft in question to enter I90 DAS sector without a point out or hand off. When an undirected hand off flashes to an unexpected sector that some effort is made to find out why this is occurring. Had I quickly reviewed the overhead chart I would have had my answer and would have avoided this event.
ZHU Controller describes a situation where he thought an undirected handoff was incorrect. The Controller took the handoff back and directed it to what he/she thought was the correct area. Controller later finds out other facilities airspace had changed; which resulted in an airspace deviation.