2025-04 · NASA ASRS report 2228540
Air carrier flight crew reported a ground conflict with another aircraft crossing the takeoff runway after receiving a takeoff clearance from ATC. The air carrier flight crew asked for clarification; and the tower revised the takeoff clearance to line up and wait.
On taxiway M towards the end; tower gave Takeoff clearance 8R rnav to csalt. We finished checks and proceeded across hold short verbally calling out 8R and the approach end was clear. Continuing to line up FO announced runway was clear but wide body aircraft under tow did not look like it was stopping for the runway hold short moving from N to S. I verbalized I would continue to line up; but come to a stop and watch. No radio calls heard. Undertow continued onto the runway and we queried tower Aircraft X cleared for takeoff." Tower responded "Aircraft X line up and wait" "Uh; Aircraft X line up and wait 8R" to which we responded accordingly as the wide body aircraft was crossing the runway. The towed wide body (I think Aircraft Y) exited the runway to the south side and we were given normal clearance for takeoff which we completed uneventfully.Cause: Possibly multiple frequencies used for tow aircraft; we did not hear any clearance radio calls to tow. Low traffic on the departure end may have caused assumption of lower risk on airfield. Actual "event" was mitigated buy a good scan of all risks by aircrew and verification to controller there was a safety issue on the runway that we had been cleared to takeoff from."
We were holding short of runway 8R in Miami. The tower (118.3) called us and cleared us for takeoff 8R RNAV CSALT. We followed our SOP procedures and the captain started to taxi the aircraft onto the runway. As the captain started a right turn to line the nose of our aircraft with the runway center line I looked down the runway and noticed a super tug was moving an aircraft from left to right but was still on the taxiway between runways 8L and 8R. I informed the captain of the situation. At this point we were lined up and ready to takeoff but the tug did not appear to stop at the hold short line for runway 8R. We elected not take off until we were sure the tug was going to stop. The tug did not stop and continued onto runway 8R. As the tug entered the runway environment I queried the tower and asked them if they were watching the tug pull an aircraft across the runway we were cleared for takeoff on. The tower controller then preceded to change our clearance to line up and wait. I asked him again to clarify why he cleared us for takeoff and then changed it to line up and wait. He just replied line up and wait. We continued to wait on the runway until the super tug and the aircraft it was towing cleared the runway. After the runway was clear the tower controller again cleared us for takeoff. Cause: It seems like there could have been a break down in communication and or expectations between the super tug and the controller. Or this could have been loss of situational awareness with the ATC tower controller. I am not sure what prompted the tower controller to clear us for takeoff and at the same time have a tug with an aircraft cross an active runway. We followed our SOP and we were actively looking for threats. As a result it helped us spot the threat and correct the situation leading to a positive outcome.
Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.
Loading the flight search…
Pick an aircraft model — Boeing 737, Airbus A320, A380, Boeing 787 Dreamliner and more — enter your origin airport, and FlightFinder shows every route that plane flies from there with live fares.
We support Boeing 737/747/757/767/777/787, the full Airbus A220/A319/A320/A321/A330/A340/A350/A380 family, Embraer E170/E175/E190/E195, Bombardier CRJ and Dash 8, and the ATR 42/72 turboprops.
Search and schedules are free. Pro ($4.99/month, $39/year, or $99 one-time lifetime) unlocks the enriched flight card — on-time stats, CO₂ per passenger, amenities, live gate & weather — plus My Trips with push alerts.
Live schedules come from Amadeus, AeroDataBox and Travelpayouts. Observed routes (which aircraft actually flew a given city pair) are crowdsourced from adsb.lol ADS-B data under the Open Database License.