Air carrier crew reported an ATC directed rejected take-off due to a traffic conflict with a landing aircraft on a crossing runway. The crew exited the runway safely; then departed.
Synopsis
Air carrier crew reported an ATC directed rejected take-off due to a traffic conflict with a landing aircraft on a crossing runway. The crew exited the runway safely; then departed.
Narrative
I was operating as the Captain of Aircraft X from LGA to ZZZ on Day 0 with a scheduled departure time of XA18 local time. After accomplishing all of our preflight checks; we taxied out to Runway 13 without delay as we were the only aircraft with ground at the time. Our taxi instructions were; Alpha; Golf; hold short Runway 4. We complied. Before I even began to brake to hold short of Runway 4; we were cleared to cross. We were asked if we were ready and we replied in the affirmative. Ground cleared us straight ahead hold short Runway 13 go to Tower. We switched to Tower and we were subsequently cleared onto the runway. Upon taking the runway I asked the First Officer (FO) if they wanted it rolling or from a stop. They wanted to stop due to the short runway. Once stopped; we ran the engines up according to procedure and then started our take-off roll. Within a couple of seconds the Tower Controller with a slightly frantic tone told us to stop our take-off. It took a second to sink in; but we rejected our take-off immediately. While stopping I noticed an aircraft on short final for Runway 4. We appeared to cross Runway 4 before the landing aircraft touched down. We continued down Runway 13 and exited at taxiway L. We held until receiving further instructions from Ground. While waiting for taxi clearance we took the time to evaluate the situation and came to the conclusion we had made a mistake on Towers take-off clearance. After realizing our mistake; we started to evaluate our fitness to continue to ZZZ and the airplane's fitness to fly. We concluded both us and the airplane were good to continue but we needed to double check our manual and guidance as this was the first rejected take-off for both the FO and I. We received taxi instructions to the BB taxiway holding area. The Tower Manager had reviewed the incident and revealed we had accepted line up and wait" not "cleared for take-off". We reviewed all company references to include braking cooling charts and confirmed we were good to continue the flight to ZZZ. The remainder of the flight was uneventful.What happened? We still are asking ourselves the same question today even as I write this. XX years in aviation and I never thought I would make such an awful mistake! After careful consideration; I realize I was busy looking at the departure as we received our Tower clearance. Normally; I repeat the clearance to the FO prior to taking the runway. This time I did not. I normally do not turn my landing lights on until cleared for take-off. I turned them on as soon as I started rolling onto the runway clearly indicating I thought we were cleared for take-off. Also; as we were turning onto the runway I inadvertently confused my FO by asking if they wanted to take the airplane as it was rolling. This set an expectation that we were cleared for take-off. We do a number of pre-takeoff standard operating procedures yet not one of them include verbal confirmation of the clearance from Tower prior to entering the runway environment. My normal routine involves doing just this; but for some reason I failed to do it on this particular leg. We are trained to verbally confirm many different clearances; specifically altitude changes etc. Why is it that our training doesn't require a verbal mutual confirmation of take-off clearance? We followed all other SOPs. Maybe if that was an SOP; we might have caught it before even taking the runway.Cause - LGA is normally a very busy airport. This particular night no one was on Ground frequency except us. When we switched to Tower we were immediately given our clearance. The aircraft landing on Runway 4 must have already received a landing clearance because the radios were quiet. Since I clearly misheard the clearance; I'm curious if we were told that there was landing traffic on our crossing runway? Due to the quiet radios and quick clearance I thought I heard cleared for take-off and proceeded accordingly. At the time the FO was reading back the clearance I was double checking the Whitestone climb details and was not 100% engaged in the radio communications. Once taking the runway I confused the FO by asking if they wanted it rolling or stopped; setting them up to think we were cleared to go.Suggestions - There is no way to prevent human error; but we can mitigate it using SOPs as we do on a daily basis in commercial aviation. When an altitude change is given; we set the altitude in the window then point and have the other pilot confirm the correct altitude is set before we change altitudes. Why do we not do something similar prior to entering the runway environment; even if just crossing a runway? I would add that as an SOP; then it becomes a mandatory habit."
Second reporter narrative
On Day 0 at about XA25z We took Runway 13 in LaGuardia as we lined up the Captain asked me if I wanted the aircraft on the roll and I said no I wanted it stopped due to the shorter runway. After stopped and ran up the engined we began our take-off roll as we were rolling down the runway at around 40 kts the Control Tower told us to stop our take-off roll immediately. We aborted the take-off at about 50 kts. It took a second or two to register what had happened as we came to stop and turned off the runway. Turning off the runway we came to a stop; ran appropriate checklists and taxied to a holding point. At this point we ran more checklists and reviewed rejected take-off procedures in our manuals. We communicated about what had happened. We were informed we had not been cleared for take-off but only to line up and wait. I; the First Officer; read back line up and wait. I realized at this point that when the aircraft was handed off to me and I was asked do you want it on the roll "my brain jumped to take-off when we had not been cleared for take-off. I have never made a mistake like this and was frustrated at myself for missing it. Looking back on it I definitely should have taken a step back and questioned whether we were cleared for take-off and verifying it with the Control Tower. After we had run the appropriate checklists and contacted Tower we decided we were both fit for duty and continued on to ZZZ.Cause - After thinking about it a casual factor that played a part was the atc silence. It was a quiet night in LaGuardia and we did not hear Tower talking to any landing aircraft that would usually give a verbal and mental queue that someone was landing on the crossing run. We left the gate and taxied straight to and got cleared onto the runway. It feels like there was a loss of situational awareness; what led to this loss I'm honestly not exactly sure. Suggestions - Having both pilots have to agree we are or are not cleared for take-off before initiating any form of take-off thrust or maneuvers."
Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.