Who?

You never heard it here, but the midnight shift is very very slow around three o'clock in the morning.

So I'm working the mid one night, and the tech guys take our main computer system down to do whatever they do to it. So we're using the back-up system and one of the things it doesn't do is automatically hand-off aircraft if they get close to someone else's boundary and you haven't started him "flashing" yet.

Anyway, I'd been dragging ass for a couple of hours and I was starting to nod off. I had two aircraft, both heading for Chicago Centers airspace, about a hundred and tweny miles apart.

I hand off the first aircraft, switch him to Chicago's frequency, then fall asleep.

Next thing I know I'm jolted awake when a plane calls me. Yeah, it was the guy I hadn't handed off yet. Only I don't see him anywhere. So I give Chicago a yell and ask him if he knows where this guy is.

Sure thing. Chicago had been watching the plane fly through their airspace, into Minneapolis Center's airspace, back into Chicago Center's airspace, and now he was about to enter Minnie's airspace again.

Oops.