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ASRS 2020704

ACN 2020704 · 2023-07 · Small Aircraft, Low Wing, 2 Eng, Retractable Gear

Air taxi Captain reported during departure taxi another aircraft taxied toward them at a high rate of speed and did not give way as instructed by ATC. The Captain applied brakes firmly to avoid a collision.

Pilot narrative

Verbatim, de-identified by NASA. Placeholders: ZZZ, X, Y.

We were cleared to taxi via Charlie to cross 4L and hold short of 4R. This took us across Taxiway Bravo. We were taxiing at a slow rate and conducting the before take off checklist and run up flow. Aircraft Y taxied towards us on Bravo at a high rate of speed. They had not been mentioned in our clearance. I hit the brakes. My First Officer asked the Controller which aircraft was meant to give way, and the Controller indicated that Aircraft Y was supposed to have given way to us. Since we had come to a complete stop, and to ensure our safety, we gave way to them. The Controller apologized. I believe he may have not believed we would be near each other since we were taxiing slowly and conducting a checklist, while Aircraft Y was taxiing quickly. As Aircraft Y was using a medevac call sign, he may have assumed we were giving way to him. I believe the Controller may have thought there was no chance we would approach the Bravo/Charlie intersection at the same time. He may have been over tasked as well. I did not hear Aircraft Y's clearance, I don't know if "give way to Aircraft X" was mentioned. In this case having two pilots and taxiing slowly helped to prevent a near miss. The taxi is a very high workload time, as Boston is busy and the run up, brief and checklists must be executed while maintaining a look out.

NASA classification · Anomalies

  • ATC Issue
  • Conflict
  • Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural

NASA classification · Assessments

Contributing Factors / Situations
Human Factors · Procedure
Primary Problem
Ambiguous

ASRS reports are voluntary, de-identified by NASA, and represent the reporter's perspective; they are not investigated and cannot be used to infer prevalence. Authoritative source: asrs.arc.nasa.gov ↗