Narrative:

Aircraft X was on a heading for the visual approach descending to 5000 feet. Aircraft Y; a jump aircraft; called up for VFR flight following for his jump operations. I radar identified aircraft Y; reconfirmed his requested altitude and issued traffic to both him and aircraft X. I also turned aircraft X 10 degrees left to avoid aircraft Y's spiraling climb. Aircraft X said he had aircraft Y on TCAS and was looking. Less than a minute later the collision alert went off. I did not issue the 'traffic alert' phraseology because turning him was more important; which I did; to a further west heading of 310 degrees. Within 20 seconds after that aircraft X informed me he was in a TCAS climb. Closest point was approximately 1.5 miles and 800 feet; with aircraft X turned northwest bound to avoid aircraft Y. There were no jump operations in progress at the time. Aircraft Y was in his initial climb of the day to start jump operations. I am comfortable with the fact I took positive action to avoid a collision by issuing aircraft X his vectors to avoid. Furthermore; because of so little time transpiring between aircraft Y's initial call and aircraft X's TCAS I feel I used good control judgment and did everything I could in this situation. If aircraft Y called prior to departing I would have changed aircraft X's heading to avoid the airport altogether; thereby avoiding the TCAS. We should look at changing the LOA to institute this. A 'heads up' would allow us to prepare and adjust routes accordingly. This is going to continue be a problem; like it always has; with his jump zone being in the runway 28 arrival path from the south.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: P80 TRACON Controller reported an IFR arrival had to respond to a TCAS alert with a VFR parachute jump aircraft even though the Controller had attempted to vector the aircraft away.

Narrative: Aircraft X was on a heading for the Visual Approach descending to 5000 feet. Aircraft Y; a jump aircraft; called up for VFR flight following for his jump operations. I radar identified Aircraft Y; reconfirmed his requested altitude and issued traffic to both him and Aircraft X. I also turned Aircraft X 10 degrees left to avoid Aircraft Y's spiraling climb. Aircraft X said he had Aircraft Y on TCAS and was looking. Less than a minute later the Collision Alert went off. I did not issue the 'Traffic Alert' phraseology because turning him was more important; which I did; to a further west heading of 310 degrees. Within 20 seconds after that Aircraft X informed me he was in a TCAS climb. Closest point was approximately 1.5 miles and 800 feet; with Aircraft X turned northwest bound to avoid Aircraft Y. There were no jump operations in progress at the time. Aircraft Y was in his initial climb of the day to start jump operations. I am comfortable with the fact I took positive action to avoid a collision by issuing Aircraft X his vectors to avoid. Furthermore; because of so little time transpiring between Aircraft Y's initial call and Aircraft X's TCAS I feel I used good control judgment and did everything I could in this situation. If Aircraft Y called prior to departing I would have changed Aircraft X's heading to avoid the airport altogether; thereby avoiding the TCAS. We should look at changing the LOA to institute this. A 'heads up' would allow us to prepare and adjust routes accordingly. This is going to continue be a problem; like it always has; with his jump zone being in the Runway 28 arrival path from the south.

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.