Narrative:

Sector 68 was conducting radar training at the time. Training certified professional controller asked me to come over and help them for just few minutes; stating that they were holding and they had several point outs to be made. I sat down and made approximately 5 different point outs. Holding was in place at camrn for jfk arrivals. We hold from 110-140. There were aircraft at 110 and 120 with two additional aircraft on the camrn arrival which were cleared to hold at 130 and 140. I received shout line all from N90 TRACON. When I answered; the controller stated he wanted to verify that we had radar on a B737. I advised that I was unaware of the B737. The N90 controller stated that the aircraft was 'going through our pattern;' at which point I did notice a limited data showing 125 and climbing 3 miles west of camrn intersection heading southwest bound. I immediately physically pointed to the target and said to watch out for him! As I was on the land line with N90 they transferred communications of the B737 to us and the 'right' side wasn't sure who he was. This is a very poor procedure which our area has protested about for years; stating this exact scenario as a dangerous situation. Caribbean departures from ewr or lga come out via dixie v276 prepi owenz. They are handed off to sector 68 climbing to 150. All other departures from N90 are climbed to 170. Traditionally these aircraft are held down at 6;000 ft until col VOR. Therefore it is not uncommon to have these planes check on with us climbing out of 8;000 or 9;000 ft. The routing transects directly through the camrn holding pattern. Normally when a dixie departure is handed off to sector 68 when the holding pattern is in use; and a vector is issued to N90; keeping aircraft away from the holding pattern. The complaint we have always had is that if an aircraft experience a radio failure; or not handed off; the aircraft would run right through an active holding pattern. That is exactly what happened here. The sector was busy; the limited data was not noticed; no hand off was made; and the aircraft climbed through the holding pattern; luckily climbing through the 110 and 120 planes in the hold at camrn. The fact that these planes did not get together was strictly luck. We got lucky this time; but if it happens again we may not be so lucky. This procedure has to be changed. I'm not sure if it is feasible; but I would think that if N90 can get the dixie departures to go out with the wavey departures. The problem here was the failure of the N90 trainee controller to hand off the aircraft.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: ZNY Controller described a potential conflict event when when N90 failed to hand off a non transponder/radio failure departure that flew through an active holding pattern.

Narrative: Sector 68 was conducting RADAR training at the time. Training Certified Professional Controller asked me to come over and help them for just few minutes; stating that they were holding and they had several point outs to be made. I sat down and made approximately 5 different point outs. Holding was in place at CAMRN for JFK arrivals. We hold from 110-140. There were aircraft at 110 and 120 with two additional aircraft on the CAMRN arrival which were cleared to hold at 130 and 140. I received shout line all from N90 TRACON. When I answered; the Controller stated he wanted to verify that we had RADAR on a B737. I advised that I was unaware of the B737. The N90 Controller stated that the aircraft was 'going through our pattern;' at which point I did notice a limited data showing 125 and climbing 3 miles west of CAMRN Intersection heading southwest bound. I immediately physically pointed to the target and said to watch out for him! As I was on the land line with N90 they transferred communications of the B737 to us and the 'R' side wasn't sure who he was. This is a very poor procedure which our area has protested about for years; stating this exact scenario as a dangerous situation. Caribbean departures from EWR or LGA come out via DIXIE v276 PREPI OWENZ. They are handed off to Sector 68 climbing to 150. All other departures from N90 are climbed to 170. Traditionally these aircraft are held down at 6;000 FT until COL VOR. Therefore it is not uncommon to have these planes check on with us climbing out of 8;000 or 9;000 FT. The routing transects directly through the CAMRN holding pattern. Normally when a DIXIE departure is handed off to Sector 68 when the holding pattern is in use; and a vector is issued to N90; keeping aircraft away from the holding pattern. The complaint we have always had is that if an aircraft experience a radio failure; or not handed off; the aircraft would run right through an active holding pattern. That is exactly what happened here. The sector was busy; the limited data was not noticed; no hand off was made; and the aircraft climbed through the holding pattern; luckily climbing through the 110 and 120 planes in the hold at CAMRN. The fact that these planes did not get together was strictly luck. We got lucky this time; but if it happens again we may not be so lucky. This procedure has to be changed. I'm not sure if it is feasible; but I would think that if N90 can get the DIXIE departures to go out with the WAVEY Departures. The problem here was the failure of the N90 Trainee Controller to hand off the aircraft.

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.