Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Confusion; Situational Awareness
ATC Issue All Types; Conflict NMAC; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Air Traffic Control Issued New Clearance
Human Factors
I was training on the Final Sector; the Developmental on position was working their first position after Skill Enhancement Training (SET) for this sector. SET was assigned to the Trainee to work on scan; projecting; working speed; and control judgment. This was a very complex session for anyone; but especially for a trainee struggling with training as this one is. We were working a Flight Check (FLC) aircraft; foreign and local fighters; and regular air carrier traffic. Weather was VFR; visual approaches to Runways 10L/R. There are several incidents that took place during this session; one which involved a loss of separation. Within the first 10 minutes on position; my trainee descended a flight of 2 F16s from 5;000 FT into non-RADAR airspace for a conflicting departure protected to 4;000 FT [and into a] Bonanza which I had to correct and issue a climb. FLC aircraft was running tests for the Runway 10R localizer at 1;500 FT; and had conflicting VFR traffic which my Trainee called several times and then had to issue a safety alert and suggest a turn. I was informed by Management the VFR traffic later called the facility to report a NMAC with 'a regional jet 25 feet away;' which was probably the FLC aircraft; a Learjet. The loss of separation involved the Bonanza; a point-out from another sector northwest bound through my airspace at 4;000 FT. We had a CRJ-200; on downwind vectors roughly heading 280 and 5;000 FT. My Trainee was struggling with keeping up with the traffic; and left the CRJ-200 on extended downwind. When they finally based the traffic to a heading of 010; I was so concerned with the sequence that I missed the altitude assignment. I was concerned with putting another aircraft inside of CRJ-200 since the vectors were so late. I didn't even notice the CRJ-200 and Bonanza conflict; and was informed of the possible and then confirmed loss of separation. The CRJ-200 ended up descending into the Bonanza as they were turning through their flight track; closest proximity approximately 2.8 miles and 600 FT. Separation was lost for 3 RADAR sweeps. Contributing factors to this event were added workload form foreign fighters; the trainee's lack of confidence on position due to recent struggles in training; flight check activity; traffic volume; sector complexity (conflict with satellite airport); and my fatigue. I realized that while I felt fine working sectors on my own; but I was having trouble concentrating while conducting OJTI. [I need] to recognize my signs of fatigue and be more aware of when I'm having difficulty concentrating. Bravo airspace around the airport would have limited the VFR aircraft's activity in the airport and not caused the traffic alert situation and apparent NMAC. The training team should also not have been put in the position of training a struggling trainee on a very complex and busy session. The South Feeder is also recently certified and was having a very hard time keeping up with this session; and that added to a frantic atmosphere in the TRACON that affected the performance of the Trainee.
TRACON Controller described a conflict event when his Developmental was overwhelmed with complex traffic especially for a student experiencing difficulties.