1993-02 · NASA ASRS report 236133
CPR LTT TAKES OFF VFR INTO IMC WX WHEN ATC CANNOT ACCEPT THE DEP RWY HE WANTS TO USE.
OPERATING UNDER FAR PART 91 FROM KMIV TO CYYZ. THE ARPT HAD BEEN CLOSED FOR APPROX 4 HRS FOR SNOW REMOVAL. THE ARPT MGR DROVE OVER TO OUR AIRPLANE AND PERSONALLY TOLD US THAT RWY 10/28 AND TXWY 'B' WERE OPEN AND WE COULD DEPART. WE CONTACTED MILLVILLE FSS AND RECEIVED ARPT ADVISORIES AND OUR IFR CLRNC TO CYYZ. WE WERE TOLD 10 WAS THE ACTIVE BUT IT WOULD LEAVE US WITH A 10 KT TAILWIND ON A SNOW COVERED ICY RWY. WE ADVISED THE FSS THAT WE WOULD USE 28. THEY WERE UNSURE IF 28 WAS OPEN AND I TOLD THEM THAT THE ARPT MGR SAID IT WAS. THERE WAS A GREAT AMOUNT OF CONFUSION ON THE PART OF THE FSS. WE TAXIED INTO POS AND CALLED FOR OUR RELEASE. THE FSS ASKED IF WE COULD DEPART VFR. I SAID IT LOOKED LIKE WE COULD AND ASKED WHAT THEY WERE CALLING THE WX; TO WHICH THEY REPLIED 600-2. I ADVISED THEM IT LOOKED BETTER TO ME THAN THAT. BUT; IF WE COULD JUST GET OUR IFR WE COULD BE GONE. THE FSS SAID WE COULD NOT GET A VOID TIME BEFORE THE ARPT WAS NOTAMED CLOSED; BUT HE HAD PERMISSION FOR US TO DEPART. FSS SAID HE WOULD HAVE TO CALL THE ARPT MGR. I TOLD THE FSS THE ARPT MGR WAS SITTING IN HIS CAR ON THE SIDE OF THE RWY WITH THE SNOW PLOWS WAITING FOR ME TO DEPART. CONFUSION REIGNED ON THE PART OF THE FSS SO WE ADVISED WE WERE TAKING OFF VFR AND WOULD CONTACT APCH WHEN AIRBORNE. THE COM BREAKDOWN ON THE PART OF THE FSS COULD CAUSE A SEVERE SAFETY PROB.
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.