TRACON controller described an icing event involving an IFR departure that could not hold altitude; ...

Narrative:

Aircraft X departed ZZZ1 climbing to 60; west bound aircraft encountered icing and wouldn't maintain assigned altitude. PIREPS regarding icing were few and far between due to low volume. When offering a return to ZZZ1 the pilot responded that the weather there was awful; pilot was given a block altitude; pilot finally got out of icing but I really don't think pilot was ready to fly in these conditions. I don't know that I did all I could have done; at one point I declared an emergency in my mind; but once the pilot was out of danger I was just relieved to know that things were going to be alright I just let it go.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: TRACON Controller described an icing event involving an IFR departure that could not hold altitude; the reporter assigned block altitudes and questioned if he should have declared an emergency for the aircraft.

Narrative: Aircraft X departed ZZZ1 climbing to 60; west bound aircraft encountered icing and wouldn't maintain assigned altitude. PIREPS regarding icing were few and far between due to low volume. When offering a return to ZZZ1 the pilot responded that the weather there was awful; pilot was given a block altitude; pilot finally got out of icing but I really don't think pilot was ready to fly in these conditions. I don't know that I did all I could have done; at one point I declared an emergency in my mind; but once the pilot was out of danger I was just relieved to know that things were going to be alright I just let it go.

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	981948
Time
Date	201111
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.TRACON
State Reference	US
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	M-20 Series Undifferentiated or Other Model
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Initial Climb
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Departure
Qualification	Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence

TRACON controller described an icing event involving an IFR departure that could not hold altitude; the reporter assigned block altitudes and questioned if he should have declared an emergency for the aircraft.