Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Air Traffic Control Time Certified In Pos 1 (yrs) 24
Troubleshooting; Confusion; Workload; Communication Breakdown; Time Pressure; Situational Awareness; Distraction
Airspace Violation All Types; Conflict Airborne Conflict; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Air Traffic Control Provided Assistance
Human Factors; Procedure
Denver 9 special! Number 1 of 4 in 5 days! Denver 9 sector called the WILD Sector to apreq [Approval Request] Aircraft X; Non RVSM [Reduced Vertical Separation Minimum] at FL350. WILD approved the altitude. Minutes later we received a red alert on our User Request Evaluation Tool between Aircraft X and Aircraft Y. Looking into it we discovered Den 35 had climbed Aircraft Y to FL350 and was now in direct conflict with Aircraft X. Den 9 is adjacent to Den35. Den 9 either 'flashed Aircraft Y through' their sector for Den 35 or they took a point-out. Either way Denver 9 was aware of Aircraft Y. No action was taken from the Den 9 'controller'. The WILD controller called the sector underlying his own sector (LNK) and asked controller if they had gotten a point-out on Aircraft X since he was Non RVSM at FL350 and her vertical airspace goes up to FL340. Controller replied; 'No!' He asked her if controller could accept Aircraft X at FL330. Controller replied; 'Yes.' He called the adjacent sector ONL and pointed Aircraft X out descending to FL330. The WILD controller then called Den 9 and walked him through everything he had done to achieve separation between the two aircraft. He instructed the Den 9 'controller' to descend Aircraft X down to FL330. Den 9 became argumentative and said; 'I'll just ship him to you and you can take him down.' WILD said 'No; our frequency is bad; take him down. Den 9 replied; 'I'll just ship him to LNK and they can take him down.' WILD insisted that Den 9 take Aircraft X down and separation was maintained.There are too many errors here by Den 9 to list. A couple that stand out are: 1. All conflictions were not resolved prior to transfer of communications!2. Aircraft X (Non RVSM) was not pointed out to LNK. Possible airspace violation. 3. Even after all measures were taken to help Den 9 resolve this situation; they became argumentative and wanted WILD to descend their aircraft. Denver controllers have a culture of complacency. Even when they have been told they are handing us two aircraft that will collide within a few miles outside their boundary they either don't know how to separate the aircraft or become argumentative! This is very dangerous. Our supervisor witnessed the whole event and chose not to do anything.
ZMP Controller reported an operation involving another center and the possible rules they broke attempting to transfer the aircraft to the new center. Reporter also stated the Front Line Manager observed this operation and did nothing about it.