 |
37000 Feet | Browse and search NASA's Aviation Safety Reporting System |
|
S46 TRACON controller reported a loss of separation on final due to not realizing an aircraft involved was a category F.
| Attributes | |
| ACN | 1700884 |
| Time | |
| Date | 201911 |
| Local Time Of Day | 1801-2400 |
| Place | |
| Locale Reference | BFI.Airport |
| State Reference | WA |
| Aircraft 1 | |
| Make Model Name | Light Transport |
| Flight Phase | Final Approach |
| Flight Plan | IFR |
| Aircraft 2 | |
| Make Model Name | Medium Transport |
| Flight Phase | Final Approach |
| Flight Plan | IFR |
| Person 1 | |
| Function | Approach |
| Qualification | Air Traffic Control Fully Certified |
| Experience | Air Traffic Control Time Certified In Pos 1 (yrs) 1 |
| Events | |
| Anomaly | ATC Issue All Types Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy |
Narrative:
I was working arrival east and bfi arrival combined with a good amount of bfi traffic inbound. I was getting bfi arrivals from all 4 corners into my airspace and trying to sequence while also trying to feed the sea final. Aircraft X was vectored to final behind aircraft Y. I did not see that aircraft Y was an f-category aircraft before I switched aircraft X to bfi tower. Upon realization that I needed 4.0 miles for wake turbulence; I tried to contact bfi tower to see if they could slow aircraft X but nobody answered. Aircraft Y started slowing and compression caused aircraft X to get within 4 miles of the aircraft in front.[sector] should have been split with the amount of bfi arrivals inbound. My guess is that; like always; staffing forced the situation to remain combined causing the loss. I also have no idea why bfi tower let aircraft X continue the approach after they saw that wake turbulence separation was going to be lost unless they asked aircraft X if they could provide visual with the aircraft in front.
Original NASA ASRS Text
Title: S46 TRACON Controller reported a loss of separation on final due to not realizing an aircraft involved was a Category F.
Narrative: I was working arrival east and BFI arrival combined with a good amount of BFI traffic inbound. I was getting BFI arrivals from all 4 corners into my airspace and trying to sequence while also trying to feed the SEA final. Aircraft X was vectored to final behind Aircraft Y. I did not see that Aircraft Y was an F-Category aircraft before I switched Aircraft X to BFI Tower. Upon realization that I needed 4.0 miles for wake turbulence; I tried to contact BFI Tower to see if they could slow Aircraft X but nobody answered. Aircraft Y started slowing and compression caused Aircraft X to get within 4 miles of the aircraft in front.[Sector] should have been split with the amount of BFI arrivals inbound. My guess is that; like always; staffing forced the situation to remain combined causing the loss. I also have no idea why BFI Tower let Aircraft X continue the approach after they saw that wake turbulence separation was going to be lost unless they asked Aircraft X if they could provide visual with the aircraft in front.
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.