What we have been informed

• Parachute dropping flights ~ 25NM out of our country's main airport operating Visual Flight Rules (VFR) in the airspace of a busy departure sector (airspace class E & C) caused infringement of separation minima to Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) flights on SIDs and STARs by climbing above cleared FL or by dropping without clearance.
• What makes the cases complicated is, that it is a commonly used behaviour to keep the these flights on the frequency of Terminal Flight Information (TFI) and not on the frequency of the TMA lower radar sector dealing with all Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) DEPs (to avoid frequency congestion).
• According to procedures, the radar controller of the lower sector is responsible for applying separation also to/from these VFR flights.

Your support is required

• How do you deal with this or similar scenarios?
• What are your procedures regarding this matter?
• What do you qualify as ”unknown traffic”?
• What are your practices dealing with “unknown traffic”?

Disclaimer

© European Organisation for Safety of Air Navigation (EUROCONTROL) February 2006. This alert is published by EUROCONTROL for information purposes. It may be copied in whole or in part, provided that EUROCONTROL is mentioned as the source and to the extent justified by the non-commercial use (not for sale). The information in this document may not be modified without prior written permission from EUROCONTROL. The use of the document is at the user’s sole risk and responsibility. EUROCONTROL expressly disclaim any and all warranties with respect to any content within the alert, express or implied.