Originally Posted by
BFSGrad
2. I think it likely that the local controller thought that the “southwest abort” call was from SWA and indicated a RTO. The subsequent “you can turn right when able” is much more typical of an instruction to an aircraft on landing rollout or RTO rollout. If the instruction was intended for SWA after takeoff, it would have been inappropriately vague and made no sense given that SWA was to fly 170 after departure.
SWA was given instruction for a left turn to a heading after takeoff, a right turn would take them across the departure path of the parallel runway.
It definitely seems as if ATC mistook FedEx’s
“Southwest Abort” transmission as coming from SWA.
A massive stuff up by ATC but SWA should’ve queried the takeoff clearance, or told ATC they could not roll fast enough, and given FedEx a clear signal to go around.
I can’t help but wonder if lax US ATC and radio added to this, a habit of issuing landing clearance before a takeoff clearance to an aircraft that hasn’t even entered the runway yet is bad enough in VMC, in LVO it’s just dangerous. Plus FedEx’s transmission
“FedEx is on the go” - unclear what their intentions were with that, and then telling SWA to abort which confused everyone and wasted valuable seconds.
It’ll probably be written off as an isolated incident but to me it’s symptomatic of an undisciplined culture.