The ATC officer was dealing with a lousy setup, where was the supervisory oversight looking at the flow control and the potential for this to get entertaining?
The lousy setup was partially due to the local controller’s (LC) decision to grant 47C’s request to land 26 instead of 33. When 47C initially checked in, the LC advised 47C he would be in sequence behind a SWA 737. 47C requested a change to 26. The original plan would have had 47C land after the SWA737 but before the CRJ. The LC then would have had no choice but to hold the ERJ short of 33, delaying its takeoff until after the CRJ landed. Other distractions were the police helo, initially request to “work to the east,” but then changing that plan to requesting to land BUR (sequenced behind 47C), and a DA42 requesting a BUR transition to VNY.
Regarding the “is he off the runway yet” transmission, I think that was from the CRJ. To me it sounded like someone in the CRJ inadvertently keyed the mic transmitting the dialogue between the CRJ PF/PM; i.e., “is he off the runway yet, no, we’re going around.”
One other observation. When the LC issued the go-around to 47C, she called the CRJ at 2 miles. Another 30 seconds elapsed before she issued the takeoff clearance for the ERJ immediately followed by the landing clearance to the CRJ. That means the CRJ was well inside of 1 mile when she issued those clearances.
Within 2 minutes after this incident, there was a change in LCs.