Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Air Traffic Control Time Certified In Pos 1 (yrs) 15
Workload; Distraction; Confusion; Time Pressure
ATC Issue All Types; Airspace Violation All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence
Air Traffic Control Issued New Clearance; Air Traffic Control Provided Assistance; Air Traffic Control Separated Traffic
Weather; Procedure; Human Factors; Company Policy; Airspace Structure
I was working many positions this session: RXX/TXX/DXX/DXY/RXY The volume of traffic became so intense we had to stop taking hand offs from ZTL. In turn they stopped taking hand offs from us. I'm sure there were many aircraft north and southbound that hit other airspace without a proper point out or a hand off. It was so complex that even with as many people as we had over there to handle the situation it could not be accomplished. Command Center denied all of our requests for help to slow down the traffic so we could do our job properly.Give us help from the Command Center when everyone in the country has to go around the weather into one hole between the military exercises and airspace. There is simply too much volume for one or even two controllers to handle. Maybe an ultra-high could have helped with the frequency congestion.
At XA:10am local I came into work and saw a large weather system extending from just east of SZW toward CHS; causing aircraft to go into the Warning Areas over the Atlantic. We were advised the military was recalling airspace (which we have no power to deny) and because of (Military Training Exercise) no aircraft would be permitted to deviate into the airspace once activated. We told our supervisors and Traffic Management Unit if this were the case; all southbound aircraft that were not able to fly the Atlantic routes would have to be routed something similar to CAE..DBN..VNA..SZW. This would cause all southbound traffic to be routed through two sectors XX/XY which do not have an ultra high and are FL240-600. When what we predicted started to unfold; we were told Command Center thought what we needed was too restrictive. XX/XY were already red sectors; it what they didn't know is roughly 85% of our traffic were on bad routes and were going to be added to the already unsafe numbers at XX/XY. This resulted in chain reaction no notice holds. After complaining for hours; we were told ZTL would not issue reroutes. This was by and far one of the most unsafe situations I had witnessed. Additionally; I overheard that Command Center was pressuring us to come out of ground stops while sectors were holding aircraft.Command Center constantly limits our ability to manage traffic and results in extremely unsafe situations. I have been told several Traffic Management Coordinators that have went to Command Center from ZJX go to terminal areas; thus wasting the knowledge they possess about our complex military/funnel/weather structure. It was clear that yesterday safety was not a priority in the National Airspace System and the Command Center introduced risk into the system by trying to overload the system and pressuring it to break.
Two Jacksonville Center Controllers reported FAA Command Center would not comply with their request for traffic flow restrictions for known weather; causing operational challenges.