Narrative:

Military 1 was working the crystal MOA/amram with sector 59. The aircraft requested to also be assigned the pecos MOA that is in sector 98. Sector 59 requested the areas but they are not familiar with them and there was traffic in the area so they said they would tell military unable on the pecos areas. Soon the OM came down and said that we must accommodate the flight. Sector 59 put the aircraft on sector 98's frequency and gave us control of the crystal MOA and the aircraft to clear them in. Military 1 checked in and was cutting out on their transmissions. I switched from main to standby and then buecs; but military 1's response was sporadic. I cleared military 1 into pecos 2;4;5;6 fl240b320 due to traffic in the areas at FL340; and numerous aircraft in area 3 at different altitudes. Military 1 read back pecos 2;3;4;5;6 fl240b450. I told him negative not area 3 and the assigned altitude was fl240b320. No response. I tried to contact the aircraft several more times and finally he read back FL450 again. I repeated not area 3 and the top of the block was FL320 and I needed a read back. At this time the flm was requesting that I ask if the flight was marsa with other aircraft in crystal and I responded that I was not getting any response and this was not a safe situation since these aircraft were not familiar with the areas or understood that they were restricted in the airspace. The aircraft finally read back the FL320 then proceeded to turn their transponder off and go NORDO. We tried to relay through other aircraft in the crystal MOA but got no response. We finally saw several targets in pecos 5 with altitude readouts of FL350; 335; 325. There was also another aircraft transiting the airspace at FL370. Both aircraft had exited the airspace before military 3 checked in with clear radios. I said I had been trying to contact the flight and I needed all 4 of the aircraft to exit the pecos area back to crystal. I asked if they were clear of the pecos area and the pilot said negative. At this time they must have turned their transponders on because we picked up targets in the pecos area at FL290. They said they would comply and let me know when they had exited the airspace. It took several minutes and several transmissions with military 3 before the aircraft exited and then military 1 finally checked back in. I told them to remain within crystal MOA and put the aircraft back on sector 59's frequency. Recommendation; first of all; if the OM had notified us of the operation 15-20 minutes ahead of time we could have rerouted aircraft around the moas; gotten routes in with mty and ZFW to route aircraft to lrd instead of png; and aircraft over jct instead of sat that were overflying area 3. Then we could have released all of the pecos areas to sector 59 and they could have kept the aircraft on a familiar frequency. If this was not accomplished then the aircraft should have been denied entry until all aircraft were clear.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: ZHU Controller described a very confused MOA operation by unfamiliar military pilots who required detailed clearances for airspace containment; reporter claiming more timely facility coordination would have prevented event.

Narrative: Military 1 was working the CRYSTAL MOA/AMRAM with Sector 59. The aircraft requested to also be assigned the PECOS MOA that is in Sector 98. Sector 59 requested the areas but they are not familiar with them and there was traffic in the area so they said they would tell Military unable on the PECOS areas. Soon the OM came down and said that we must accommodate the flight. Sector 59 put the aircraft on Sector 98's frequency and gave us control of the CRYSTAL MOA and the aircraft to clear them in. Military 1 checked in and was cutting out on their transmissions. I switched from Main to Standby and then BUECs; but Military 1's response was sporadic. I cleared Military 1 into PECOS 2;4;5;6 FL240B320 due to traffic in the areas at FL340; and numerous aircraft in area 3 at different altitudes. Military 1 read back PECOS 2;3;4;5;6 FL240B450. I told him negative not area 3 and the assigned altitude was FL240B320. No response. I tried to contact the aircraft several more times and finally he read back FL450 again. I repeated not area 3 and the top of the block was FL320 and I needed a read back. At this time the FLM was requesting that I ask if the flight was MARSA with other aircraft in CRYSTAL and I responded that I was not getting any response and this was not a safe situation since these aircraft were not familiar with the areas or understood that they were restricted in the airspace. The aircraft finally read back the FL320 then proceeded to turn their transponder off and go NORDO. We tried to relay through other aircraft in the CRYSTAL MOA but got no response. We finally saw several targets in PECOS 5 with altitude readouts of FL350; 335; 325. There was also another aircraft transiting the airspace at FL370. Both aircraft had exited the airspace before Military 3 checked in with clear radios. I said I had been trying to contact the flight and I needed all 4 of the aircraft to exit the PECOS area back to CRYSTAL. I asked if they were clear of the PECOS area and the pilot said negative. At this time they must have turned their transponders on because we picked up targets in the PECOS area at FL290. They said they would comply and let me know when they had exited the airspace. It took several minutes and several transmissions with Military 3 before the aircraft exited and then Military 1 finally checked back in. I told them to remain within CRYSTAL MOA and put the aircraft back on Sector 59's frequency. Recommendation; first of all; if the OM had notified us of the operation 15-20 minutes ahead of time we could have rerouted aircraft around the MOAs; gotten routes in with MTY and ZFW to route aircraft to LRD instead of PNG; and aircraft over JCT instead of SAT that were overflying area 3. Then we could have released all of the PECOS areas to Sector 59 and they could have kept the aircraft on a familiar frequency. If this was not accomplished then the aircraft should have been denied entry until all aircraft were clear.

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.