Narrative:

When the traffic started to build in the north departure sector [the controller] should have taken some action to prevent the absolute meltdown of the area that occurred soon after. We had airspace hot; and in addition were told to block some airspace for a flight to orbit north of bae VOR. That aircraft kept spilling out of the protected area. Later some of us were told that the aircraft doesn't actually have to stay inside the area; rather we need to miss that aircraft (rather than the airspace). This sort of assignment of airspace is extremely dangerous and should never be approved; and if absolutely necessary; should be clearly noted to both the flight crew and the controller what exactly is supposed to be happening. In addition; ZAU tmu may have been pushing extra aircraft out the north departure sector; or the airlines were filing it but either way the sheer volume and complexity of the airspace pushed the sector team past the limits of safe operation. I blame the sup for not doing enough to protect the controllers. This [controller] is notorious in the area for not having the knowledge that he should regarding ATC. If he did anything to flow traffic or reroute aircraft or anything it was invisible to me. I worked the bae sector for an hour in some of the most complex and busy traffic I have seen in years. This should never be allowed to happen. Aircraft were leveling for minutes at a time; calling in unanswered as we tried to figure out how to sort the ac out; climb them; miss overflight traffic and airspace and monitor the flight and his reserved altitude. Fixed miles in trail off ord north when there is hot airspace in the north area. I suggest 25 in trail per stream regardless of departure point at least! Just having the tmu aware of our military airspace does nothing as the tmu is staffed with very low time; inexperienced folks. They have little or no concept of sector saturation. There need to be hard and fast rules regarding airspace and departures in the north area. With the osh airshow coming up; and staffing numbers low and senior controllers few and far between; I can foresee IFR days when the safety of the sectors will be threatened.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: ZAU Controller reported of a shift that got out of hand due to traffic overload; and in the opinion of the reporter; the Front Line Managers lack of action.

Narrative: When the traffic started to build in the north departure sector [the controller] should have taken some action to prevent the absolute meltdown of the area that occurred soon after. We had airspace hot; and in addition were told to block some airspace for a flight to orbit north of BAE VOR. That aircraft kept spilling out of the protected area. Later some of us were told that the aircraft doesn't actually have to stay inside the area; rather we need to miss that aircraft (rather than the airspace). This sort of assignment of airspace is extremely dangerous and should never be approved; and if absolutely necessary; should be clearly noted to both the flight crew and the controller what exactly is supposed to be happening. In addition; ZAU TMU may have been pushing extra aircraft out the north departure sector; or the airlines were filing it but either way the sheer volume and complexity of the airspace pushed the sector team past the limits of safe operation. I blame the sup for not doing enough to protect the controllers. This [controller] is notorious in the area for not having the knowledge that he should regarding ATC. If he did anything to flow traffic or reroute aircraft or anything it was invisible to me. I worked the BAE sector for an hour in some of the most complex and busy traffic I have seen in years. This should never be allowed to happen. Aircraft were leveling for minutes at a time; calling in unanswered as we tried to figure out how to sort the ac out; climb them; miss overflight traffic and airspace and monitor the flight and his reserved altitude. Fixed Miles in Trail off ORD north when there is hot airspace in the north area. I suggest 25 in trail per stream regardless of departure point at least! Just having the TMU aware of our military airspace does nothing as the TMU is staffed with very low time; inexperienced folks. They have little or no concept of sector saturation. There need to be hard and fast rules regarding airspace and departures in the north area. With the OSH airshow coming up; and staffing numbers low and senior controllers few and far between; I can foresee IFR days when the safety of the sectors will be threatened.

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.