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ASRS 1823435

ACN 1823435 · 2021-07 · Bombardier/Canadair Undifferentiated or Other Model

A Center Controller reported a skydiving operation aircraft was operating along the departure path of two air carrier departures. The first air carrier was issued a traffic alert and the second departure turned off course below the Minimum IFR Altitude to avoid jumpers.

Parachutist / Aircraft Conflicts Initial ClimbPart 121CruisePart 91

Pilot narrative

Verbatim, de-identified by NASA. Placeholders: ZZZ, X, Y.

Radar controller, no D-side (Radar Assist), significant weather and deviations south of ZZZ. Skydiving aircraft off of ZZZ1 with VFR advisories from Center. Aircraft was performing operations most of the day, multiple jumps, in and out of radar. The location that the operations were occurring were approximately the ZZZZZ intersection on the ZZZ RNAV XX arrival and the ZZZZZ1 fix on the ZZZ [RNAV] Departure. During the incident, Runway XX was active with the Departure in use and aircraft were departing to the north and making a left turn to the southwest, which put them in the approximate location of the skydive operations. The skydiving aircraft [Aircraft Z] was told numerous times that their location was directly in the way of IFR departures and arrivals into ZZZ. ZZZ is and was very busy with IFR traffic at this time. Tower called for two releases on IFR air carrier Aircraft. The first air carrier departed, and ended up being in the same location as the skydiving aircraft. I issued a traffic alert to both aircraft. That was Aircraft X. The second air carrier, Aircraft Y then departed and if memory recalls, I had stopped that aircraft at 9,000 feet on departure anticipating the same scenario as Aircraft X. I again issued traffic, with the skydiving aircraft being at approximately 12,500 feet at this time. The skydiving aircraft then reported that jumpers were away, with the air carrier aircraft directly below. The air carrier pilot reported seeing jumpers in the air and turning to avoid at approximately 6,000 feet below terrain, to which I replied roger. I have brought this up to managements attention, the day of by notifying the FLM (Front Line Manager) who in turn notified the OMIC (Operations Manager in Charge). We have also forwarded the info to the LSC (Local Safety Commitee). Local airspace has gotten involved and we have opened up the Skydiving LOA (Letter of Agreement) to rewrite the LOA and hopefully make some changes. In my opinion, the jump zone needs to be relocated to a safer spot away from ZZZ IFR traffic.

NASA classification · Anomalies

  • ATC Issue
  • Conflict
  • Inflight Event / Encounter

NASA classification · Assessments

Contributing Factors / Situations
Airspace Structure · Company Policy · Human Factors · Procedure
Primary Problem
Procedure

ASRS reports are voluntary, de-identified by NASA, and represent the reporter's perspective; they are not investigated and cannot be used to infer prevalence. Authoritative source: asrs.arc.nasa.gov ↗