Narrative:

I was working two combined departure sectors. A turboprop departed the airport from runway xxl and was on a heading assigned by the tower. I was just starting to give a position relief briefing to a developmental plugged in with me and an ojti plugged into the hand off position to listen to the briefing. The developmental was sitting down and I was standing up left of the radar scope in the override headset jack. The turboprop checked on the frequency saying 'departure; aircraft X.' nothing else was given on the check-in. I radar identified the turboprop and asked the pilot his altitude. He gave me his altitude and said he needed to return to the airport to land and he was having a trim issue. I turned the aircraft northbound to a 340 heading and asked the aircraft their preferred runway. The pilot said xxl. I told him to expect xxl and issued traffic on a 1 mile final which was a heavy B767. He said; 'looking'; so I asked the aircraft to advise the airport in sight which he did report in sight. I also noticed the aircraft was in a descent so I told the aircraft to maintain 6;000 (my MVA) and he said he would try to but was having trouble holding altitude. At that point I cleared the aircraft for a visual approach to xxl. I knew that if he was having an issue holding altitude he needed to be turning back to the airport right away. The ojti that was in the hand off position jack told me that everything had been coordinated with the tower for the aircraft. I assumed they had all the information and shipped the aircraft to the correct frequency. The aircraft landed without incident. The tower then called to say that they didn't have all the information on the aircraft. I had assumed that all coordination had been completed when the ojti had told me that it was. I never put em on the emergency aircraft either because I was standing up left of the keypad and a developmental was sitting in front of the scope. I also never asked the aircraft fuel and souls on-board. I feel I could have handled the situation better than I did after the fact. I should have coordinated directly with the tower when I knew the aircraft needed to come back to land. I also should have tagged the aircraft up as an emergency to get the attention of everyone in the tower and TRACON. Part of this was that I was no longer sitting in front of the scope but standing up left of the position. Going forward I will make sure I'm in a position to make keyboard entries.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: TRACON Controller described the handling of an emergency return aircraft to the departure airport; the reporter noting his failure to secure all the emergency information as prescribed in facility directives.

Narrative: I was working two combined departure sectors. A turboprop departed the airport from Runway XXL and was on a heading assigned by the Tower. I was just starting to give a position relief briefing to a developmental plugged in with me and an OJTI plugged into the hand off position to listen to the briefing. The developmental was sitting down and I was standing up left of the RADAR scope in the override headset jack. The turboprop checked on the frequency saying 'Departure; Aircraft X.' Nothing else was given on the check-in. I RADAR identified the turboprop and asked the pilot his altitude. He gave me his altitude and said he needed to return to the airport to land and he was having a trim issue. I turned the aircraft northbound to a 340 heading and asked the aircraft their preferred runway. The pilot said XXL. I told him to expect XXL and issued traffic on a 1 mile final which was a heavy B767. He said; 'looking'; so I asked the aircraft to advise the airport in sight which he did report in sight. I also noticed the aircraft was in a descent so I told the aircraft to maintain 6;000 (my MVA) and he said he would try to but was having trouble holding altitude. At that point I cleared the aircraft for a Visual Approach to XXL. I knew that if he was having an issue holding altitude he needed to be turning back to the airport right away. The OJTI that was in the hand off position jack told me that everything had been coordinated with the Tower for the aircraft. I assumed they had all the information and shipped the aircraft to the correct frequency. The aircraft landed without incident. The Tower then called to say that they didn't have all the information on the aircraft. I had assumed that all coordination had been completed when the OJTI had told me that it was. I never put EM on the emergency aircraft either because I was standing up left of the keypad and a developmental was sitting in front of the scope. I also never asked the aircraft fuel and souls on-board. I feel I could have handled the situation better than I did after the fact. I should have coordinated directly with the Tower when I knew the aircraft needed to come back to land. I also should have tagged the aircraft up as an emergency to get the attention of everyone in the Tower and TRACON. Part of this was that I was no longer sitting in front of the scope but standing up left of the position. Going forward I will make sure I'm in a position to make keyboard entries.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.