They were instructed to enter 28
Things must have changed. I always believed that a taxi clearance or line up clearance was just that...a clearance. It was up to the captain to decide whether it is safe to do so. Can ATC also
order a pilot to take off. If so, do they accept responsibility for any incident? I accept the fact that ATC can instruct an aircraft to vacate an active runway but the concept that they can order an aircraft to line up is new to me. How times change!
The aircraft was at the holding point. It was not interfering with the safe operation of the runway, purely causing a slight delay to the following aircraft. How do we know whether that aircraft was fully ready?