Originally Posted by
Equivocal
I do hope you don't really mean that!
I do actually mean that, and in low vis situations at airports without surface movement radar, that’s how it works. It’s a good idea for everyone involved to slow down and keep a tight lock on situational awareness on days like this. One guess is we had a mixing of VFR habit and low vis procedure. Yes, sometimes carriers will rattle the cage with unnecessary holding short calls in decent wx to prompt a quick release from tower. However, in low vis the call is required to let tower know the aircraft position. In this situation the required call may have reflexively prompted tower’s VFR habit of clearing the aircraft for t/o if possible.