Originally Posted by
Compton3fox
The TWR controller "did not notice" the circled '16' annotation on the strip. Just over two minutes after the transfer to listen out on TWR, with the 737 having meanwhile landed and passed in front of the SD330 waiting on taxiway 16 before clearing the runway, TWR cleared the MD83 (in French) for take-off. Five seconds after this, the SD330 was instructed by TWR (in English) to "line up runway 27 and wait, number 2". On receipt of this clearance, its crew then began to taxi onto the runway "whilst looking for the Number 1"
It doesn't seem the comms in French and English was a major factor. The SD330 knew there was an A/C on the runway as they were looking for it. It seems the root cause was clearing the A/C onto the runway into the path of another A/C already rolling as the TWR controller thought it was behind the MD. No2 implies there is an A/C to depart before you. Of course, hearing "Clear for Take-off" in English just before you are cleared to Line up and wait No2, may have provoked a different reaction but it equally may have made no difference. To say the language difference was the cause, I don't think is backed up by the facts.
So he would have lined up if he had just heard an aircraft that had not yet passed him was cleared to take off?