Only SLF here (FF with LH Miles and More) - but listening to the tape I do not hear any clearance... At 2045 they seem to say the length of runway required (?) but hate to say that I never hear "Clear for take-off"... Can someone correct me?
It was touched upon earlier in this thread--Apparently the source of the audio is from LiveATC.net. The site's feeds come from scanners, and as such, more often than not, some parts of the story are lost, usually because the scanner is locked onto a different frequency at a particular moment. Such is most likely the case with the takeoff clearance in this instance.
From the opening post on this topic, there at LiveATC (
Cancelled take off Clearance - JFK | LiveATC.net ):
I'm not sure what just happened I was just listening on JFK Tower and around 1050-1055z the controller shouted at Air China to cancel takeoff clearance, then proceeded to say all traffic is stopped. I'm not sure what happened, Air China rejected takeoff and returned to the ramp with hot brakes and someone started talking about the incident and the controller said "No need to talk about it on the air, we can all see what's going on here" and then he chuckled. I don't know how to pull up the audio, but if anyone is interested the rejected takeoff was at 1054z I believe. Happy listening
PS. I think it was Air China, the pilot had an Asian accent
Now, as has also been mentioned above, the news media has a very shallow depth of knowlege about aviation matters. (I'll suggest that anyone with even the most rudimentary knowlege of ATC phraseology wouldn't have mistaken "cancel takeoff clearance" for "cancel takeoff
plans"), but it seems that they're well aware of the existence of the audio archives at LiveATC, because that's frequently the source of the sound bites that accompany any aviation incident related story.
What I wonder is this--if the pure happenstance at play had favored including Lufthansa's takeoff clearance in the audio feed, but eliminated the frantic "Cancel takeoff clearance!", would this story have even seen the light of day?
I also have to agree that it's a little pedantic, given the potential consequences averted, to gig the controller for improper phraseology here...