A Little Story About Understanding

11 August 2010 214 Comments

Actually, there will be three short-stories here about pilots not understanding the instruction they had been given. These are not meant to be a bash on pilots (God knows I’ve mis-heard pilots before), but for the sake of this posting, and a little thing called “CYA” (cover your a–!), I’m going to talk about how three pilots did something they shouldn’t have.

The first scenario took place during a small departure rush, and I was alone in the tower working both local and ground control. A regional jet was taxiing to the runway and I received a departure time (“flow time”) from the center about 5 minutes or so away. I told the pilots that there would be a short delay and to taxi all the way up to the hold lines for the runway. Meanwhile, an Airbus pilot called for a clearance, which I delivered. When I turned around to clear the regional jet for takeoff, I noticed it was already sitting on the runway, holding in position. The tape review revealed that I never said anything about taxiing into position, but it was a non-event.

The second scenario involved a general aviation aircraft that called for taxi for a VFR departure. The wind was almost calm, and runway 18 was in use. The aircraft was coming out of a ramp area that was right across from taxi M3, which was the halfway point of the 7700 foot long runway. The pilot requested a taxi to runway 36 at M3, and I instructed him to taxi to runway 18 and M3, emphasizing the “18”. Again, I was alone in the tower (see a staffing issue forming? I’ll save that for a later post), and working a regional jet which was taxiing to runway 18 as well. Since it was a tie to the runway, I cleared the Cessna for takeoff from runway 18 at M3 in order to avoid the wake turbulence delay. I then turned around and gave instructions to another aircraft on the other side of the airport. When I turned back, the Cessna was just beginning his takeoff roll…in the wrong direction! Once he was airborne, I informed him that he departed from 36 (remember, the runway he asked for when he first called for taxi?), and to contact departure. The saving grace here is that since I was alone in the tower, I couldn’t put the regional jet into position on the runway, so it was a non-event, although the consequences could have been pretty bad.

Finally, I was working at a busy VFR tower one afternoon in the LA basin, and traffic was using runway 3. A Cessna had called from the northeast, and I instructed him to enter right traffic for runway 3. I was launching departures off runway 3 straight out at the time. The inbound aircraft appeared to be lined up with runway 21, right in the face of the departures. He was still about 4 to 5 miles away from the airport, so I wasn’t extremely concerned. I again instructed him to enter right traffic for runway 3, and I cleared another Cessna for takeoff straight out. Once he lifted off, I saw that the inbound Cessna was now about 2 miles away and still lined up with runway 21. I issued the traffic alert and very urgently instructed the inbound aircraft to make an immediate left turn to enter right traffic. The conflict alert on the tower radar went off and out the window, the scene was very ugly.

The aircraft missed each other, but not by much. In this case, the pilot was confused and was gradually entering the left traffic pattern (which is on the right side of the runway). The near mid-air almost had severe consequences. In all three cases, the pilots were doing what they thought they were instructed. The point here is to be vigilant to ensure that when you give a control instruction, the aircraft actually follows the instruction. The last thing you want in your new career is an accident, even if it was due to the pilot not doing what you actually instructed him to do.

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