Narrative:

I had been working the bearz sector 35 for about twenty minutes when several aircraft from the east (fwa hi) sector were coming my way to ord. At the same time looth sector was rerouting all ord arrival aircraft to me on the watsn 1 arrival and direct the hulls way point. When I took over the sector the previous bearz controller coordinated with looth and allowed looth to bring arrivals in over hulls and fast (i.e. 320 knots or greater). As I began to get busier; I forgot about the old coordination with looth. Looth kept handing arrivals off to me direct hulls and at 320 knots or greater; therefore abiding with the previous coordination. I did not have a d-side to coordinate for me; and became too busy to coordinate for myself a new in-trail and speed. I was buried before I knew it; and was vectoring aircraft all over the sector. I began slowing arrivals to 250 knots; but it wasn't enough. It wasn't until I began vectoring several arrivals that I realized looth was still handing me aircraft direct and fast. I told looth to stop handing me ord arrivals; trying to give myself some breathing room. As a result; I forgot about a crj that was routed on the OXI4 arrival; the aircraft never took direct prise because he couldn't go direct there. Prise being an RNAV routed fix; and him being on a non-RNAV arrival. I had to spin another ord arrival 360 degrees to obtain separation; and also came close to having another incident with two other aircraft (@17;000 feet) during the time I had to vector these arrivals. I then was forced to stack a pair of arrivals with chicago TRACON; because I was without any more options. I had run out of airspace to get any type of spacing on these arrivals. The two aircraft mentioned were literally stacked on top of each other; at 11000 and 12000. The mode C altitude readout on both aircraft had dropped and conflict alert engaged. When I verified the aircraft X was level at 12;000; he mentioned he was at 11;000. I was about to climb aircraft X to 12;000 immediately but then told him to maintain his altitude. I asked nks to say altitude and he said he was level at 12;000. Since I had my separation I verified the two aircraft maintain those altitudes and contact chicago approach. Recommendation; there absolutely needs to be a procedure for when looth should offload arrivals to the bearz sector; especially when the sector is about to get busy. Currently the two sectors coordinate with one another as to which arrivals each sector will accept. This procedure simply does not work - when bearz gets busy; the controller has no time to coordinate or look out ahead. There needs to be a procedure in place for when the bearz sector gets busy; and therefore looth can keep ord arrivals on the ROYKO3 arrival. However; chicago TRACON had put looth in the hold for ord arrivals earlier in the shift for keeping ROYKO3 arrivals on the ROYKO3 arrival. This created a mentality in our area that we needed to load up as many arrivals on the WATSN1 arrival as we could. If looth had kept a few arrivals without any fear of reprisal from chicago TRACON for doing so; this problem would never have happened. I ended up working more aircraft than the bearz sector can accept. As a result; an aircraft did not have the capability to fly an RNAV arrival; but was able to go direct RNAV fixes. This aircraft did not require vectors to go direct style way point; however was unable to fly an RNAV arrival. I did not have time to see this; and therefore tied up my frequency and caused another potential incident to occur while I tried to sort this out. The fact that a major air carrier regularly files non-RNAV routing's creates additional complexity to an already complex sector. I got buried at the bearz sector for having too many aircraft being fed to me that were supposed to be on the ROYKO3 arrival. The bearz sector as constructed is not suited for sequencing what is supposed to be dual streams. The bearz sector as constructed has no room to vector arrivals should a controller make a mistake and require vectoring. There needs to be a better procedure for the running of ord arrivals into chicago approach through the southeast area.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: ZAU handoff controller described confused and heavy workload event when he/she failed to remember prior coordination with adjacent sector allowing for high speed entries for ORD arrival aircraft.

Narrative: I had been working the BEARZ Sector 35 for about twenty minutes when several aircraft from the East (FWA HI) sector were coming my way to ORD. At the same time LOOTH sector was rerouting all ORD arrival aircraft to me on the WATSN 1 arrival and direct the HULLS way point. When I took over the sector the previous BEARZ controller coordinated with LOOTH and allowed LOOTH to bring arrivals in over HULLS and fast (i.e. 320 knots or greater). As I began to get busier; I forgot about the old coordination with LOOTH. LOOTH kept handing arrivals off to me direct HULLS and at 320 knots or greater; therefore abiding with the previous coordination. I did not have a d-side to coordinate for me; and became too busy to coordinate for myself a new in-trail and speed. I was buried before I knew it; and was vectoring aircraft all over the sector. I began slowing arrivals to 250 knots; but it wasn't enough. It wasn't until I began vectoring several arrivals that I realized LOOTH was still handing me aircraft direct and fast. I told LOOTH to stop handing me ORD arrivals; trying to give myself some breathing room. As a result; I forgot about a CRJ that was routed on the OXI4 arrival; the aircraft never took direct PRISE because he couldn't go direct there. PRISE being an RNAV routed fix; and him being on a non-RNAV arrival. I had to spin another ORD arrival 360 degrees to obtain separation; and also came close to having another incident with two other aircraft (@17;000 feet) during the time I had to vector these arrivals. I then was forced to stack a pair of arrivals with Chicago TRACON; because I was without any more options. I had run out of airspace to get any type of spacing on these arrivals. The two aircraft mentioned were literally stacked on top of each other; at 11000 and 12000. The Mode C altitude readout on both aircraft had dropped and conflict alert engaged. When I verified the Aircraft X was level at 12;000; he mentioned he was at 11;000. I was about to climb Aircraft X to 12;000 immediately but then told him to maintain his altitude. I asked NKS to say altitude and he said he was level at 12;000. Since I had my separation I verified the two aircraft maintain those altitudes and contact Chicago Approach. Recommendation; there absolutely needs to be a procedure for when LOOTH should offload arrivals to the BEARZ sector; especially when the sector is about to get busy. Currently the two sectors coordinate with one another as to which arrivals each sector will accept. This procedure simply does not work - when BEARZ gets busy; the controller has no time to coordinate or look out ahead. There needs to be a procedure in place for when the BEARZ sector gets busy; and therefore LOOTH can keep ORD arrivals on the ROYKO3 arrival. However; Chicago TRACON had put LOOTH in the hold for ORD arrivals earlier in the shift for keeping ROYKO3 arrivals on the ROYKO3 arrival. This created a mentality in our area that we needed to load up as many arrivals on the WATSN1 arrival as we could. If LOOTH had kept a few arrivals without any fear of reprisal from Chicago TRACON for doing so; this problem would never have happened. I ended up working more aircraft than the BEARZ sector can accept. As a result; an aircraft did not have the capability to fly an RNAV arrival; but was able to go direct RNAV fixes. This aircraft did not require vectors to go direct STYLE way point; however was unable to fly an RNAV arrival. I did not have time to see this; and therefore tied up my frequency and caused another potential incident to occur while I tried to sort this out. The fact that a major air carrier regularly files non-RNAV routing's creates additional complexity to an already complex sector. I got buried at the BEARZ sector for having too many aircraft being fed to me that were supposed to be on the ROYKO3 arrival. The BEARZ sector as constructed is not suited for sequencing what is supposed to be dual streams. The BEARZ sector as constructed has no room to vector arrivals should a controller make a mistake and require vectoring. There needs to be a better procedure for the running of ORD arrivals into Chicago Approach through the Southeast Area.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.