AFTER BEING CLRED TO DEPART RWY 36L; MEM CTLR RPTS ACFT X TKOF ON TXWY M AT MEM AND OVERFLY AN AIRCRAFT ON THE SAME TXWY.
Synopsis
AFTER BEING CLRED TO DEPART RWY 36L; MEM CTLR RPTS ACFT X TKOF ON TXWY M AT MEM AND OVERFLY AN AIRCRAFT ON THE SAME TXWY.
Narrative
WHILE WORKING I OBSERVED AN ACFT TAKE OFF TXWY M OVERFLYING AN ACFT PARKED ON SAME TXWY AWAITING A GATE. ACFT WAS ISSUED A TAKEOFF CLRNC FROM LC1 FOR RWY 36L. THE ACFT TURNED ONTO TXWY M AN INNER PARALLEL TXWY AND TOOK OFF OVER THE PARKED ACFT. THE LOCAL CTLR OBSERVED THIS AND TWICE STATED TO THE PLT 'YOU'RE ON A TAXIWAY' AT THE TIME THE LCL CTLR OBSERVED THE TAKEOFF ON TXWY M IT WAS TOO LATE TO CANCEL HIS TAKEOFF CLRNC. THIS SITUATION HAS HAPPENED AT LEAST THREE TIMES ON TXWY M THAT I'M AWARE OF AND NUMEROUS TIMES ON TXWY S WHEN PLTS MISTAKE TXWY S FOR RWY 18C. WHAT IS MOST DISTURBING TO ME IS THAT A RECOMMENDATION TO MITIGATE THESE SITUATIONS WAS SUGGESTED OVER 3 YRS AGO BY A FELLOW CTLR TO THE MEMPHIS SHELBY COUNTY ARPT AUTHORITY. ALTHOUGH THEY ADOPTED NEW SIGNAGE FOR TXWY S; THEY TOOK NO ACTION ON TXWY M. THE NEW SIGNAGE ON TXWY S SEEMS TO HAVE REDUCED THESE OCCURRENCES HOWEVER THEY STILL DO HAPPEN. FURTHERMORE; MEMPHIS IS EQUIPPED WITH AMASS AND ASDE; WHY IS IT THAT THESE SYSTEMS CANNOT BE MODIFIED OR TWEAKED SO TO SPEAK TO ALERT THE CTLR WHEN A CERTAIN SPEED THRESHOLD IS MET; IE 30 OR 40 KTS ON A TXWY AND THE ALARM GOES OFF TO ALERT THE CTLR OF A POSSIBLE TAKEOFF ON A TXWY. IN ADDITION; I MENTIONED THAT THERE WAS AN ACFT PARKED ON TXWY M; THIS IS A COMMON SITUATION HERE DUE TO RAMP CONTROL PROBLEMS AND GATE AVAILABILITY. I HAVE WITNESSED ACFT BEING SENT AROUND ON LNDG BECAUSE RAMP CONTROL BLOCKS THE TXWY AT M6 OR CAUSES BACKUPS FOR ACFT EXITING AND PARKING.
Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.