Narrative:

I was working sector 04/34 and assigned a d-side because it was known that the military airspace was about to go active with 14 fighters. The military airspace abuts about 7 different sectors (04/06/02/36/42/03/15). I worked the pdx fighters into the airspace. Sector 2 tried to hand the tcm fighters off to me to clear into the airspace but I would not take them; they would never touch my airspace before entering the military airspace. The fighters would eventually leave the airspace and go back directly into sector 02's airspace; I thought initially; they should keep the data blocks and clear them out of the airspace. After an argument between areas; controllers and supervisors; we found a procedure that stated 02 should work them in and 04 should work them out; and that was how it was worked. I believe this procedure created an incredibly unsafe situation. I cannot begin to tell you how unsafe I felt of the situation; the enormous workload factor; complexity factor and disservice to the flying user. All of this because we have a procedure that puts all the workload on one sector instead of each sector doing there own job! There were four people watching the sector; myself; the r-side; the d-side; an eram sme and the supervisor. When it was time to exit the airspace; I had 14 fighters in 8 groups calling to return to pdx and/or tcm within about 7 minutes; while still working aircraft that needed to be delayed to pdx. One of the fighters didn't even have a flight plan on file to go back to tcm. The rest of the aircraft needed to be radar identified and cleared/rerouted to pdx and/or tcm. Some aircraft required delay vectors to meet meter times. The last two groups declared minimum fuel; adding to the complexity. I have no idea if any of this was coordinated as I was to busy to find out. I just know that the d-side was constantly on the line with both the tmu and pdx. During this period I still had sector 34 to watch over with up to 5 aircraft on the bonvl arrival to pdx requiring delays and meter times to meet. A couple of the delays times needed vectors and a 360 to achieve. I noticed all four of us had become tunnel visioned when the air carrier aircraft that departed pdx had leveled at FL230 and still had no hand off to high altitude. Recommend [we] change the supplement allowing each sector to work their airplanes into their airspace and have each sector notify the mission desk as to who they have cleared out.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: ZSE Controller described a complex and very high workload environment when current procedures required the recovery of 14 military aircraft from a military airspace mission along with normal traffic; the reporter claiming the subject procedure unsafe and a disservice to the user aircraft.

Narrative: I was working Sector 04/34 and assigned a D-Side because it was known that the military airspace was about to go active with 14 fighters. The military airspace abuts about 7 different sectors (04/06/02/36/42/03/15). I worked the PDX fighters into the airspace. Sector 2 tried to hand the TCM fighters off to me to clear into the airspace but I would not take them; they would never touch my airspace before entering the military airspace. The fighters would eventually leave the airspace and go back directly into Sector 02's airspace; I thought initially; they should keep the Data Blocks and clear them out of the airspace. After an argument between areas; controllers and supervisors; we found a procedure that stated 02 should work them in and 04 should work them out; and that was how it was worked. I believe this procedure created an incredibly unsafe situation. I cannot begin to tell you how unsafe I felt of the situation; the enormous workload factor; complexity factor and disservice to the flying user. All of this because we have a procedure that puts all the workload on one sector instead of each sector doing there own job! There were four people watching the sector; myself; the R-Side; the D-Side; an ERAM SME and the supervisor. When it was time to exit the airspace; I had 14 fighters in 8 groups calling to return to PDX and/or TCM within about 7 minutes; while still working aircraft that needed to be delayed to PDX. One of the fighters didn't even have a flight plan on file to go back to TCM. The rest of the aircraft needed to be RADAR identified and cleared/rerouted to PDX and/or TCM. Some aircraft required delay vectors to meet meter times. The last two groups declared minimum fuel; adding to the complexity. I have no idea if any of this was coordinated as I was to busy to find out. I just know that the D-Side was constantly on the line with both the TMU and PDX. During this period I still had Sector 34 to watch over with up to 5 aircraft on the BONVL arrival to PDX requiring delays and meter times to meet. A couple of the delays times needed vectors and a 360 to achieve. I noticed all four of us had become tunnel visioned when the Air Carrier aircraft that departed PDX had leveled at FL230 and still had no hand off to high altitude. Recommend [we] change the supplement allowing each sector to work their airplanes into their airspace and have each sector notify the mission desk as to who they have cleared out.

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.