A TRACON controller noticed insufficient wake turbulence spacing between aircraft that had been hand...

Attributes
ACN	1358151
Time
Date	201605
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	SCT.TRACON
State Reference	CA
Environment
Flight Conditions	Marginal
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	B737-900
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Final Approach
Route In Use	Visual Approach
Flight Plan	IFR
Aircraft 2
Make Model Name	B777 Undifferentiated or Other Model
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Final Approach
Route In Use	Visual Approach
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Approach
Qualification	Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Experience	Air Traffic Control Time Certified In Pos 1 (yrs) 4.5
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy

Narrative:

I was working stadium during marginal VFR conditions. The base of the clouds were around 4;000 feet MSL. Aircraft X was on approach behind aircraft Y a heavy B777. I cleared aircraft X for a visual approach off the airport and gave him a cautionary wake turbulence advisory before shipping him to the tower. When I saw that separation wasn't going to be maintained I called the tower. I told the local control assist that if aircraft X can't get aircraft Y in sight he needs to go around. The local control assist seemed to be coordinating with someone else while also talking to me and I restated that aircraft X needed to go around. His response was 'we'll try him again' or something close to that effect.aircraft X did not go around and separation at threshold was 4.58. Also the radar presentation on my scope was very inconsistent. Separation information from atpa (automated terminal proximity alert) was jumping around from 5.17 to 4.9 back up to 5.06 all the way inside the final approach fix.the local controller may have given aircraft X the traffic and had him follow the heavy traffic. Coordination that I completed seemed unclear. I had to hang the line up because of additional traffic on my downwind that needed to be sequenced to the airport. I should have gotten a definitive response from the local assist.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A TRACON Controller noticed insufficient wake turbulence spacing between aircraft that had been handed off to the Tower and attempted to coordinate a resolution; but was unable to complete coordination due to workload.

Narrative: I was working stadium during marginal VFR conditions. The base of the clouds were around 4;000 feet MSL. Aircraft X was on approach behind Aircraft Y a heavy B777. I cleared Aircraft X for a visual approach off the airport and gave him a cautionary wake turbulence advisory before shipping him to the tower. When I saw that separation wasn't going to be maintained I called the tower. I told the local control assist that if Aircraft X can't get Aircraft Y in sight he needs to go around. The local control assist seemed to be coordinating with someone else while also talking to me and I restated that Aircraft X needed to go around. His response was 'we'll try him again' or something close to that effect.Aircraft X did not go around and separation at threshold was 4.58. Also the radar presentation on my scope was very inconsistent. Separation information from ATPA (Automated Terminal Proximity Alert) was jumping around from 5.17 to 4.9 back up to 5.06 all the way inside the final approach fix.The local controller may have given Aircraft X the traffic and had him follow the heavy traffic. Coordination that I completed seemed unclear. I had to hang the line up because of additional traffic on my downwind that needed to be sequenced to the airport. I should have gotten a definitive response from the local assist.

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.

A TRACON controller noticed insufficient wake turbulence spacing between aircraft that had been handed off to the tower and attempted to coordinate a resolution; but was unable to complete coordination due to workload.