2024-04 · NASA ASRS report 2108946
Tower Controller and flight crew reported confusion and timing of runway hold short instructions resulted in a runway incursion with landing traffic.
Aircraft X completed landing roll RWY 4R and was told to turn left at kilo; hold short of RWY 8L the first hold bar (because they overlap). Aircraft X reads the hold short back verbatim. I then go to clear his company to land and while he is reading back the clearance I notice that Aircraft X was full speed crossing the hold line with Aircraft Y about to cross the threshold of RWY 8L. I was so shocked that before the Aircraft X could finish his read back I immediately keyed up and started screaming 'Aircraft X hold' three times and then sent Aircraft Y around. Aircraft X probably couldn't hear me because of the read back but because of his speed there was no way of stopping prior to the runway; Aircraft Y could hear me because they were on UHF. Even with a complete read back and the local restriction of the aircraft holding at kilo must have been given a LAHSO clearance in the air; the aircraft blew through the hold line. The only fix to this is to never let an aircraft hold on TWY kilo; it is a dangerous intersection where we have had several bad runway incursions in the past.
As Captain and Pilot Flying I was issued a LAHSO landing clearance for RWY 4R on downwind leg approximately 10 minutes prior to landing. The FO and I completed a landing assessment and had acceptable numbers for landing and holding short of RWY 8L. We completed the landing rollout and stopped prior to RWY 8L. We then turned left off the runway and on to taxiway K and were then instructed by ATC to hold short of 1st hold line for RWY 8L. That instruction occurred with little time to comply and we continued past the intended hold line causing a go around for an aircraft landing on RWY 8L. The last minute taxi instruction to hold short of RWY 8L was given as the applicable hold short line was close to passing under the nose of our aircraft. The seemingly irregular style of the hold short lines also caused some confusion. Also; any traffic landing on RWY 8L was invisible to any cockpit due to the angle between the runway and taxiway thereby prevented any visual clue. The last second instruction to hold short of the 'first hold short line' at the point we were nearly past that line was a setup to fail. We conducted the LAHSO instruction without deviation. The hold short instruction that followed our turn onto taxiway K was poorly timed as it occurred during a time of high task loading and as we were nearly past the line. The LAHSO clearance was not a problem. But the untimely instruction to hold short on a very short taxiway K coupled with the lack of visual cues created confusion. Perhaps if that last instruction was given prior to landing or avoided completely this incident may have been avoided. The hotspot notes were helpful but instructions during the landing rollout should be avoided.
Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.
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