TRACON controller experienced an airspace violation when confusing a had off with a point out and in...

Narrative:

I signed on position and only about 2 minutes after finishing the briefing I took a verbal point out from the neighboring approach. Apparently; in the process of taking the verbal point out; I dropped the tag and didn't realize I took the automated hand off on the aircraft from center sector X; and put an overflight tag on the target. It appeared to sector X that I took the hand off but I was under the impression I was taking a point-out from neighboring approach. The plane continued on course as a point out to me. After a short period of time; sector X put the aircraft on my frequency and the pilot called and I never responded to the call. The pilot only called once and never tried again to contact me. I got very busy with other aircraft and a radio failure as well; the subject aircraft; which I believed was still a point out continued on its way and into class B airspace. The supervisor took a phone call from the tower to have the aircraft to contact them. I told the supervisor I took a point out and they called sector X. The aircraft unknown to me was on my frequency and I finally shipped the aircraft to tower. I will be extra careful about dropping tags close to airspace boundaries. Like I said; I didn't know I took the automated hand off; from sector X; and if I did; I would never have dropped the tag and would have never taken the point out and just called radar contact on the aircraft.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: TRACON Controller experienced an airspace violation when confusing a had off with a point out and inadvertently dropping a Data Block near an airspace boundary.

Narrative: I signed on position and only about 2 minutes after finishing the briefing I took a verbal point out from the neighboring Approach. Apparently; in the process of taking the verbal point out; I dropped the tag and didn't realize I took the automated hand off on the aircraft from Center Sector X; and put an overflight tag on the target. It appeared to Sector X that I took the hand off but I was under the impression I was taking a point-out from neighboring Approach. The plane continued on course as a point out to me. After a short period of time; Sector X put the aircraft on my frequency and the pilot called and I never responded to the call. The pilot only called once and never tried again to contact me. I got very busy with other aircraft and a radio failure as well; the subject aircraft; which I believed was still a point out continued on its way and into Class B airspace. The supervisor took a phone call from the Tower to have the aircraft to contact them. I told the supervisor I took a point out and they called Sector X. The aircraft unknown to me was on my frequency and I finally shipped the aircraft to Tower. I will be extra careful about dropping tags close to airspace boundaries. Like I said; I didn't know I took the automated hand off; from Sector X; and if I did; I would never have dropped the tag and would have never taken the point out and just called RADAR contact on 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.

Attributes
ACN	974510
Time
Date	201110
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.TRACON
State Reference	US
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Cessna 310/T310C
Flight Phase	Cruise
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Approach Departure
Qualification	Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Airspace Violation All Types Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy

TRACON controller experienced an airspace violation when confusing a had off with a point out and inadvertently dropping a data block near an airspace boundary.