Date: 201505
Local time of day: 1801-2400
Location: HCF.TRACON, HI
Light: Night
Aircraft: Any Unknown or Unlisted Aircraft Manufacturer
ATC / advisory: TRACON HCF
Reporter organization: Government
Reporter function: Approach; Departure; Enroute
Reporter qualification: Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Human factors: Time Pressure; Troubleshooting; Workload; Distraction; Situational Awareness; Confusion; Communication Breakdown
Anomaly: ATC Issue All Types; Conflict Airborne Conflict; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence
Detector: Person Air Traffic Control
When detected: In-flight
Result: Air Traffic Control Provided Assistance
Contributing factors: Human Factors; Procedure
Primary problem: Procedure

Narrative: I was training our new Traffic Management Coordinator (TMC) at A7 for about 45 minutes or so; there was an emergency aircraft at [a nearby Hawaiian airport] that had stopped on the runway and shut down the airport.  I stopped training and went over to monitor sectors R9 and R10 since they had multiple aircraft holding; just trying to be an extra set of eyes and help with coordination and flight plan reroutes.  About 20 minutes later; I relieved the R9 controller.  Most of the traffic had already been diverted to other airports.  In all; the airport was shut down for nearly an hour.  We all knew that once the airport reopened; things were going to get crazy since no one was able to land for an hour.  My supervisor informed me that all ZZZ2 departures to the closed airport would be released normally since that's where most of the oceanic inbounds were rerouted to; but ZZZ3 departures would be 15 minutes in trail to the closed airport to help with congestion.  Before getting into details; I would like to point out that the circumstances at the closed airport were already unusual.  Not just with the airport shutdown; but the field was IFR.  It was windy; so everyone was slowing to 120 knots on a 7 mile final.  And runway was closed.  Once the airport reopened; things escalated quickly and did not let up.  Lots of caravans at the beginning; but I was pushing traffic and everything for the first 15 minutes or so was being sequenced smoothly.  About 20 minutes in; I noticed R4 flashing a two carriers that departed from ZZZ3.  I took the handoffs and scoped out a bit and noticed 2 more carrier's flashing at me.   I'd say that all 4 aircraft were within 15 miles of each other; with the jets stacked on top of the smaller aircraft.  No speeds had been issued since the first carrier was doing 380 knots when I took the handoff.  So much for 15 minutes between the closed airport departures.  I couldn't even get 15 miles between all 4 of them.  Add that to the fact that R5 was flashing 2 jets from ZZZ2; R10 was flashing 2 jets from the North; and my final was already backed up since I was already busy and had been giving extra space between aircraft anticipating compression due to the weather.  At this point; the sector turned into utter chaos; and even after that; planes just kept coming.  In all; from the first plane until I was finally able to give a briefing and get out; I had been sequencing aircraft 45 minutes non stop.  And when I say non stop; I mean just that without exaggeration.  This was by far the busiest I have ever been in my career; and it's not even close.  I was vectoring guys through final over and over just to get minimal spacing.  I even had to pull out a large carrier because it wasn't going to work.  In that 45 minute lapse; I don't think tower was able to get out a single departure because my line up was so stacked.  And to be honest; I would not be surprised if I came up a bit short on wake turbulence separation once between aircraft.  There is just not enough airspace to handle that many planes; especially given the weather.  When I finally did get out; I noticed my entire body was shaking and felt jittery.  The Front Line Manager (FLM) asked if I wanted to leave early; but I said no because my body was too wired to do anything; I needed to unwind for a while.  I [kid] you not when I say I thought about this all day and night when I got home.  Didn't fall asleep til almost XA:00; and here I am working at XF:00.What makes this so frustrating is that I had no help.  The 15 minutes in trail I was told would happen never did.  No one walked over to the other sectors and told them to give extra space; slow guys; turn em; nothing.  And I'm not talking only management.  My R10 controller just sat and watched rather than reaching out to R4.  R4 and R5 just fed me plane after plane with minimal spacing.  Supes and Operations Managers (OM)s weren't watching til it was too late.  There is no excuse.  Weknew this was going to happen; but still we dropped the ball.  Why in the hell would anyone cancel the 15 minutes in trail off ZZZ3 (rumor has it is was an OM) and not just cancel it; but have no alternate flow control into place.  And then just as bad; even while it was happening; everyone continued to let it happen.  After 20 minutes of non stop sequencing; you would think someone would come over and make sure everything is in order and that the feeding sectors would know to give proper spacing.  But it never happened.  It's as if someone said; 'Here's 20 planes; they're all tied; you got weather and one runway; but here they all come.  No speeds no nothing; do what you can.'  Now don't get me wrong; I love working traffic; especially when it's busy.  I like the challenge and consider myself a very decent controller.  But given all the circumstances and everything we knew leading up to it; that type of workload should never be thrown onto a single controller.  It is not safe; not efficient.  There was no preventive actions taken before hand; and no reactive measures given while it was happening.  Unacceptable.  Don't know where to start.  First off; if it is true that an OM canceled the flow control; we need to find out why and what he was thinking.  Secondly; everyone; management and controllers; need to be much more involved with helping in this situation.  Even though a plan was in place before hand (or so we thought); someone should have been watching to make sure everything was going smoothly and adjust as necessary.  A monitor or coordinator over the sector would have helped big time.  R10 getting more involved with coordination would have helped.  Having a TMC coordinate all this and be the lead would have been huge.  Unfortunately; they both were on RDO's and the supervisor was told they could not call in a TMC for OT; even though they asked for it earlier in the day.  Don't know what else to say.  The fact that we knew the airport was closed for an hour and that the weather was crappy; there is no excuse for not having some kind of flow into airport after it reopened at the time.  Common sense says that everyone will be wanting to get into the closed airport when it reopens.  I am hoping that this reaches our local here and everyone knows what happened.  There needs to be some accountability here and something but in place to be sure this does not happen again.




Synopsis: A Hawaii TRACON (HCF) Controller reports of a period where a nearby Hawaiian airport is closed due to an aircraft incident. The airport is opened later and flow procedures are supposed to be in place by the Traffic Management Unit (TMU). Minutes later; the sector is inundated with traffic. The Controller reports of wind being a problem along with aircraft moving slower than normal on final; as well as the airspace having too many aircraft in it. The Controller is not sure if separation was lost during this time.