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An airbus aircraft climbing out at much slower speeds than other similar aircraft could cause a loss of required separation.
| Attributes | |
| ACN | 1349189 |
| Time | |
| Date | 201604 |
| Local Time Of Day | 1201-1800 |
| Place | |
| Locale Reference | S46.TRACON |
| State Reference | WA |
| Environment | |
| Flight Conditions | VMC |
| Light | Daylight |
| Aircraft 1 | |
| Make Model Name | Commercial Fixed Wing |
| Operating Under FAR Part | Part 121 |
| Flight Phase | Initial Climb |
| Flight Plan | IFR |
| Aircraft 2 | |
| Make Model Name | B737 Undifferentiated or Other Model |
| Operating Under FAR Part | Part 121 |
| Flight Phase | Initial Climb |
| Flight Plan | IFR |
| Person 1 | |
| Function | Departure |
| Qualification | Air Traffic Control Fully Certified |
| Experience | Air Traffic Control Time Certified In Pos 1 (yrs) 1.3 |
| Events | |
| Anomaly | ATC Issue All Types Conflict Airborne Conflict Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Deviation - Speed All Types |
Narrative:
Working departure sector. Gorgeous VMC. The SOP allows ATCT to launch successive departures utilizing pilot provided visual separation. The ATCT must modify the secondary scratchpad in the stars data-tag to advise the TRACON that pilot provided visual separation is being used. However; in this case the first aircraft is [a specific airbus model] and that type of aircraft is notorious for climbing out much slower than most other aircraft.according to the falcon replay; the trailing [B737] is 1.55NM behind the [airbus] with a 60 knot overtake. I restricted the [B737] to 230 knots and requested the [airbus] increase to 250 knots as soon as possible. Despite those efforts the situation continued to compress. While I was aware pilot provided visual separation was being utilized; in my judgement the situation had become unsafe and I decided to break our noise abatement procedures and initiate an early eastbound turn for the [B737]. After initiating the turn I made the supervisor aware of the situation. Both aircraft subsequently continued their departures without further incident.this is a common problem that we experience with the [airbus type] departures. I do not know why this specific aircraft type climbs out so differently; but it is common knowledge at the TRACON. I would propose that this situation could be corrected by changing the LOA to exclude [this aircraft type] departures from the provision allowing the use of pilot provided visual separation between successive departures. If ATCT had utilized the standard 3-5 mile in-trail spacing that would have been required during; this event would have been avoided.
Original NASA ASRS Text
Title: An Airbus aircraft climbing out at much slower speeds than other similar aircraft could cause a loss of required separation.
Narrative: Working Departure sector. Gorgeous VMC. The SOP allows ATCT to launch successive departures utilizing pilot provided visual separation. The ATCT must modify the secondary scratchpad in the STARS data-tag to advise the TRACON that pilot provided visual separation is being used. However; in this case the first aircraft is [a specific airbus model] and that type of aircraft is notorious for climbing out much slower than most other aircraft.According to the FALCON replay; the trailing [B737] is 1.55NM behind the [airbus] with a 60 knot overtake. I restricted the [B737] to 230 knots and requested the [airbus] increase to 250 knots as soon as possible. Despite those efforts the situation continued to compress. While I was aware pilot provided visual separation was being utilized; in my judgement the situation had become unsafe and I decided to break our noise abatement procedures and initiate an early eastbound turn for the [B737]. After initiating the turn I made the supervisor aware of the situation. Both aircraft subsequently continued their departures without further incident.This is a common problem that we experience with the [airbus type] departures. I do not know why this specific aircraft type climbs out so differently; but it is common knowledge at the TRACON. I would propose that this situation could be corrected by changing the LOA to exclude [this aircraft type] departures from the provision allowing the use of pilot provided visual separation between successive departures. If ATCT had utilized the standard 3-5 mile in-trail spacing that would have been required during; this event would have been avoided.
Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site 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.