Zan controller described a near loss of separation when intending to issue one altitude but in fact ...

Narrative:

Working three sectors combined; I had a d-side. An ATR42 inbound to adq descending to 060. A fairchild sa-227 metro was released (rather late) climbing to the mia of 050. The ATR42 had the airport in sight; had requested clearance for the visual approach; was told to continue inbound and advised of the metro traffic climbing to 050. I knew he was getting close to the airport; I had traffic complexity issues at 3 different airports going on at the same time. I was thinking one thing but my mouth was saying something different as my brain started moving on to the next task. I requested the ATR42 report 5 miles north of the VOR and decided I had better give him a holding clearance just in case (though didn't expect he would hold) in my holding clearance I told him to maintain 050 instead of 060. I didn't realize I had said it; he even read back 050 and I didn't hear the read back. Listening to the tape you could hear the hesitancy so I believe he was questioning it but he didn't say anything. Fortunately my d-side looked at me funny and the supervisor who had been monitoring looked at me funny and said; 'you know you said 050 right?' I didn't know it; but I didn't waste any time fixing it. Both aircraft were non radar; however the metro had just reported 040 and I believe the ATR42 was barely out of 070 so I do not believe separation was actually lost but I did not only give an altitude I didn't intend; but also missed the read back. Teamwork saved this; my d-side as well as the supervisor monitoring the busy session. Staffing staffing staffing. Our staffing is hurting so badly; sector 9 should have been split off long before the incident but we are so tight that we push the traffic volumes. Expectancy factor and moving on to the next task bit me. Secondly; having a supervisor monitoring; being that extra pair of ears paid off here. All too often at our facility; we have supervisors working our area that are neither assigned to our area nor certified in any sector in our area. The have zero knowledge of the sectors within that area and are unable to provide the type of assistance that this particular supervisor was able to provide. This one happened to be assigned to the area and certified on a couple of sectors within the area.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: ZAN Controller described a near loss of separation when intending to issue one altitude but in fact issued another caught by a fellow controller and corrected.

Narrative: Working three sectors combined; I had a D-Side. An ATR42 inbound to ADQ descending to 060. A Fairchild SA-227 Metro was released (rather late) climbing to the MIA of 050. The ATR42 had the airport in sight; had requested clearance for the visual approach; was told to continue inbound and advised of the Metro traffic climbing to 050. I knew he was getting close to the airport; I had traffic complexity issues at 3 different airports going on at the same time. I was thinking one thing but my mouth was saying something different as my brain started moving on to the next task. I requested the ATR42 report 5 miles north of the VOR and decided I had better give him a holding clearance just in case (though didn't expect he would hold) in my holding clearance I told him to maintain 050 instead of 060. I didn't realize I had said it; he even read back 050 and I didn't hear the read back. Listening to the tape you could hear the hesitancy so I believe he was questioning it but he didn't say anything. Fortunately my D-Side looked at me funny and the Supervisor who had been monitoring looked at me funny and said; 'You know you said 050 right?' I didn't know it; but I didn't waste any time fixing it. Both aircraft were non RADAR; however the Metro had just reported 040 and I believe the ATR42 was barely out of 070 so I do not believe separation was actually lost but I did not only give an altitude I didn't intend; but also missed the read back. Teamwork saved this; my D-Side as well as the Supervisor monitoring the busy session. Staffing staffing staffing. Our staffing is hurting so badly; Sector 9 should have been split off long before the incident but we are so tight that we push the traffic volumes. Expectancy factor and moving on to the next task bit me. Secondly; having a Supervisor monitoring; being that extra pair of ears paid off here. All too often at our facility; we have supervisors working our area that are neither assigned to our area nor certified in any sector in our area. The have zero knowledge of the sectors within that area and are unable to provide the type of assistance that this particular Supervisor was able to provide. This one happened to be assigned to the area and certified on a couple of sectors within the area.

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.

Attributes
ACN	1113162
Time
Date	201309
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	ZAN.ARTCC
State Reference	AK
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	ATR 42
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Descent
Route In Use	Visual Approach
Flight Plan	IFR
Aircraft 2
Make Model Name	SA-227 AC Metro III
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Climb
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Enroute
Qualification	Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Deviation - Procedural Clearance

Zan controller described a near loss of separation when intending to issue one altitude but in fact issued another caught by a fellow controller and corrected.