Clearance mix-up allowed four jets to cross JFK runway in front of departing A330

Swiss flight aborted take-off roll after poor co-ordination between controllers.
US investigators have attributed a runway incursion involving four separate aircraft – which forced an Airbus A330 to abort take-off – to poor co-ordination between two tower controllers at New York JFK.

The incident involved a Swiss A330-300 bound for Zurich on 17 April 2024.

Shortly beforehand a Delta Air Lines Airbus A321 had been cleared to depart runway 4L by a local tower controller.

A separate local controller was responsible for taxiways that intersected with 4L. Four aircraft were on taxiways waiting to cross the runway.

Two of those waiting were a Delta Boeing 767-400ER and a Delta Airbus A220, plus an American Airlines 737 Max and a Republic Airlines Embraer 175.

According to the National Transportation Safety Board, co-ordination between the two local controllers was conducted verbally rather than over an interphone.

The runway controller cleared the Swiss A330 to line up on 4L and then directed the taxiway controller to let the four waiting aircraft cross the runway – intending this to take place after the A330 had departed.

“Roger, behind the departure, I’ll go one at each,” the taxiway controller replied.

But the inquiry states that the taxiway controller interpreted ‘the departure’ to mean the A321 which was taking off ahead of the A330.

The controller started clearing the waiting aircraft to cross 4L as the A321 passed.

Crossing clearance was given to the 767, just before the A330 was cleared for take-off. Clearance to cross was then given to the 737 Max, the E175 and the A220.

The inquiry says “ineffective” co-ordination between the two controllers resulted in “degraded shared situation awareness”, leading to four aircraft being allowed to cross a runway on which the A330 was rolling.

Some 25s after receiving take-off clearance the A330 crew transmitted that they were aborting owing to traffic on the runway. The A330 had reached about 50kt and was positioned between taxiways K3 and K4.

Analysis shows the 767, E175 and 737 Max had all entered runway 4L from their respective taxiways, and were still travelling. The A220 had yet to reach the runway.

The 767 was the closest to the departing A330 although the two were still separated by almost 4,700ft.

While standard operating procedures at JFK allowed simultaneous runway crossings from multiple intersections, they also required “explicit” runway and intersection identification and prohibited the use of generalised instructions, says the inquiry.

It adds that the phraseology used by the two controllers was “inconsistent” with these procedures.

“Absence of precise standard phraseology and the failure to explicitly restate the crossing condition degraded the shared situational awareness between [the controllers],” it says.

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