Date: 201907
Local time of day: 1201-1800
Location: ZDC.ARTCC, VA
Flight conditions: Marginal
Weather elements / visibility: Turbulence
Aircraft: Military
Operator: Military
Flight plan: IFR
Flight phase: Cruise
Airspace: Class A ZDC
ATC / advisory: Center ZDC
Reporter organization: Government
Reporter function: Enroute
Reporter qualification: Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Human factors: Human-Machine Interface; Situational Awareness; Workload
Anomaly: ATC Issue All Types; Airspace Violation All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Detector: Person Air Traffic Control
When detected: In-flight
Result: Air Traffic Control Issued Advisory / Alert; Air Traffic Control Issued New Clearance
Contributing factors: ATC Equipment / Nav Facility / Buildings; Airspace Structure; Weather; Human Factors
Primary problem: Human Factors

Narrative: While working four sectors combined it started to get busier than normal when the high sectors began to refuse hand-offs for higher because of weather in the western part of the Center; pushing higher volume into their sectors and my low sectors. When I started to feel overwhelmed I alerted the CIC (Controller in Charge) that it was getting out of control and should probably get a D-side(Assist). The CIC stated that he was splitting the sector instead because it showed the numbers continuing to grow. With the controller starting to bug me for a briefing and the CIC telling me he was going to start making handoffs to the sector splitting for me; I started to get very uncomfortable and told them both to hold on. I took care of everything I thought I needed to do then quickly briefed the controller splitting the sector. After that was completed; I heard the adjacent Center calling the sector that split off about Aircraft X. I then answered the line because I noticed at that time they did not have the hand-off on the aircraft which was my fault. During the madness of splitting the sector I specifically remember taking the hand-off back because it was handing off to the wrong sector initially. I believe that I re-flashed it to the appropriate sector. Whether I messed up the keyboard entry or if the CIC messed with the data block is a mystery to me. While the other sector did have communication with the aircraft it was a clear airspace violation. When I talked to the controller on the line he said that the aircraft was being turned away from the Warning Area. The problem here is that when the entry was made to split the sector by the CIC it dropped the Warning Area depiction from my scope. It did not occur to me that Aircraft X was routed through the warning area. I am most disappointed in myself for allowing the CIC to put me in a position where I made an error. In the back of my mind I knew it would have been better to have a D-side (Assist Controller) before splitting the sectors. When a sector gets split where there is active airspace depicted on the scope it should remain on the originating scope until that controller adjusts the map for that single sector. I believe I may have been more alert to the situation had the red line still been depicted.




Synopsis: ZDC Center Controller reported while de-combining sectors he allowed an aircraft to fly into a Warning Area without handing it off to the controlling facility.