Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Air Traffic Control Time Certified In Pos 1 (yrs) 31
Communication Breakdown; Situational Awareness; Time Pressure; Workload
ATC Issue All Types; Airspace Violation All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Human Factors; Airspace Structure; Environment - Non Weather Related; Procedure; Weather
For at least the third time this year; I sat down at [this sector] with weather and an array of hot military airspace and saw immediately that I was going to be going down the tubes! I mentioned to the CIC [Controller in Charge] (we have very few Supes [Front Line Managers]) that the situation called for TMU [Traffic Management Unit] to restrict ORD northbound traffic. He said he would watch it. What followed was an air traffic free for all; with aircraft flashing HO [Hand Off] to me that are level at FL230 at BAE VOR; which must be climbed to miss the airspace. Every single aircraft deviating; asking about rides; routes; reports; [and] making PIREPS. There was; as far as I know; no attempt by TMU to actually manage traffic. My sector may not have been red; but anyone who actually knows this job could have seen how dangerous this sector was; and yet aircraft were poured out of ORD without restriction. Eventually; the CIC restricted the military airspace which helped. I ended up violating [another sector] at ZMP perhaps half dozen times; and they violated me. We handed off aircraft with incorrect data blocks simply because volume made it impossible to properly amend a DB [Data Block] before two other guys started talking about deviating. In their defense; when the airspace is hot; SAW works many MSP departures north of the airspace and it was into this stream that I drove my traffic; virtually all deviating; all stopped at interim altitudes; and sometimes with incorrect data. It was incredibly dangerous and as I said previously; this is at least the third or fourth time this year it has happened to me. It is my opinion that when military airspace is hot in the north area; there be a standard restriction on ORD north departure of at least 20 miles. When there is weather in addition; it should be 30 miles.
Chicago Center Controller reported an unsafe situation relating to weather; traffic volume; and airspace.