Narrative:

I was working the traffic on nat track X out of dovey; heavy flow on this track the whole night. Throughout the night atop frequently puts inactive aircraft into active airspace even though they are not really there using there proposed times for their entry point fix (dovey). Usually this causes a bunch of unwanted messages in the sector Q and causes some confusion when it's busy as it was. I took inbound coordination on aircraft X and approved the aircraft at FL370. The aircraft never progressed to dovey and during the position relief briefing I was going over any nonstandard things; the aircraft X caught my eye and I thought the aircraft had a magenta box around it indicating that it was not a coordinated inbound with me. In actuality; the aircraft was flashing a position indicating its position report was overdue. Somehow I came to the conclusion that the aircraft X was an inactive aircraft that was put there falsely by atop since the aircrafts are normally ads and cpdlc equipped. I assumed that since he hadn't reported dovey he wasn't really there; as had been happening throughout the night with other aircraft. I then entered an estimate for dovey manually that would place the aircraft back into radar airspace and keep him out of atop until needed. At this point the other controller took over. I found out later the aircraft X was a coordinated inbound and that I had improperly moved him back; so the aircraft was not being protected in atop at FL370. From what I heard; the aircraft never progressed dovey or 42n060w and didn't give a position report until 43n050w at which time the controller at that position realized that somehow the aircraft had been manipulated incorrectly in the system. Before the controller knew the aircraft X was there I believe the controller climbed another air carrier flight from FL360 to FL370. The flight was originally one minute behind the aircraft X at dovey. The bottom line is that the aircraft X should not have been moved but I was kind of lead down the path by the fact that proposed flight plans are frequently stuck into active airspace by atop and will just appear flashing position and cdn meaning they have no position reports and need coordinated with next facility; not sure why this occurs; its my belief atop uses the time filed in the original flight plan to place the data block in the system; normally outside of atop airspace; but when a flight departs late or the P time doesn't get updated it sticks the aircraft in the middle of active airspace. Normally a quick look through the messages of the aircraft explains the situation. Due to the heavy volume and fatigue; I failed to thoroughly investigate the messages to make sure of what I was doing with an active flight causing its profile to be false and unprotected from other aircraft on the track that may have been climbed through or to FL370. Recommendation; just recommend that the problem with inactive flights showing up in active airspace gets resolved so controllers don't have to use workarounds to manipulate the flight plans to show what's actually happening.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Lead astray by previous ATOP airspace entry errors; a ZNY Controller's workarounds; i.e. manipulating flight plan data; resulted in an ATOPS failure to protect occupied altitudes.

Narrative: I was working the traffic on NAT Track X out of DOVEY; heavy flow on this track the whole night. Throughout the night ATOP frequently puts inactive aircraft into active airspace even though they are not really there using there proposed times for their entry point fix (DOVEY). Usually this causes a bunch of unwanted messages in the Sector Q and causes some confusion when it's busy as it was. I took inbound coordination on Aircraft X and approved the aircraft at FL370. The aircraft never progressed to DOVEY and during the position relief briefing I was going over any nonstandard things; the Aircraft X caught my eye and I thought the aircraft had a Magenta box around it indicating that it was not a coordinated inbound with me. In actuality; the aircraft was flashing a POS indicating its position report was overdue. Somehow I came to the conclusion that the Aircraft X was an inactive aircraft that was put there falsely by ATOP since the aircrafts are normally ADS and CPDLC equipped. I assumed that since he hadn't reported DOVEY he wasn't really there; as had been happening throughout the night with other aircraft. I then entered an estimate for DOVEY manually that would place the aircraft back into RADAR airspace and keep him out of ATOP until needed. At this point the other controller took over. I found out later the Aircraft X was a coordinated inbound and that I had improperly moved him back; so the aircraft was not being protected in ATOP at FL370. From what I heard; the aircraft never progressed DOVEY or 42n060w and didn't give a position report until 43n050w at which time the Controller at that position realized that somehow the aircraft had been manipulated incorrectly in the system. Before the Controller knew the Aircraft X was there I believe the Controller climbed another air carrier flight from FL360 to FL370. The flight was originally one minute behind the Aircraft X at DOVEY. The bottom line is that the Aircraft X should not have been moved but I was kind of lead down the path by the fact that proposed flight plans are frequently stuck into active airspace by ATOP and will just appear flashing POS and CDN meaning they have no position reports and need coordinated with next facility; not sure why this occurs; its my belief ATOP uses the time filed in the original flight plan to place the data block in the system; normally outside of ATOP airspace; but when a flight departs late or the P time doesn't get updated it sticks the aircraft in the middle of Active airspace. Normally a quick look through the messages of the aircraft explains the situation. Due to the heavy volume and fatigue; I failed to thoroughly investigate the messages to make sure of what I was doing with an active flight causing its profile to be false and unprotected from other aircraft on the track that may have been climbed through or to FL370. Recommendation; just recommend that the problem with Inactive flights showing up in Active airspace gets resolved so controllers don't have to use workarounds to manipulate the flight plans to show what's actually happening.

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.