NASA · Aviation Safety Reporting System
A Tower Controller reported an aircraft did not comply with their taxi instructions and proceeded onto a taxiway that a helicopter was cleared to land on.
What is ASRS?
The Aviation Safety Reporting System is NASA's voluntary, confidential, non- punitive incident-reporting system, established 1976. Pilots, controllers, dispatchers, and maintenance technicians file reports describing safety- relevant events. NASA de-identifies every report before adding it to the public database. Reports are not investigated by NASA, the FAA, or the NTSB — they represent the reporter's perspective.
Pilot narrative
Verbatim from the de-identified NASA record. First-person account by the
reporter. NASA strips identifying details (names, company, specific time);
anonymization placeholders are ZZZ,
X, Y.
I was working Ground Control combined with Controller in Charge (CIC) when a lancair landed at ZZZ and was told to taxi to local flight school via taxiway 1. Meanwhile, another aircraft requested to land taxiway 1 with a helicopter, which I approved. The lancair would have been off taxiway 1 in front of the helicopter. Since he had sounded unfamiliar while on local's frequency which I had been monitoring as CIC I clearly instructed him that he should take the left turn at taxi lane 2 to get to his destination, and that a helicopter would be landing on the other side of taxiway 2 on taxiway 1. He read it all back. But a few minutes later, I saw him taxiing past taxiway 2 with the helicopter above the ramp coming down to land. I immediately told the lancair to hold his position and got the read back. At this point he was still past where the helicopter would land. Also told local to send the helicopter around, which he did. After the helicopter was clear of the runway again, I told the lancair to continue taxiing, and gave local permission again for landing on taxiway 1. There was nothing else I could have done for this pilot; I needed him to be more familiar with the airport, or to ask questions if he was unsure about my instructions.
NASA classification — Anomalies
- ATC Issue
- Conflict
- Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural
- Ground Incursion
NASA classification — Assessments
- Contributing Factors / Situations
- Human Factors · Procedure
- Primary Problem
- Human Factors
ASRS reports are voluntarily submitted, de-identified by NASA, and represent the reporter's perspective. The presence of reports on a topic cannot be used to infer prevalence in the National Airspace System. The authoritative source is the NASA ASRS Database Online at asrs.arc.nasa.gov ↗.