LR60 Departs Sans Clearance

Notwithstanding acknowledgement of ATC instructions to line-up and wait (LUAW)—taxi into position and hold to those of us who remember a more elegant time—the flight-crew of a Bombardier Learjet 60 (LR60) operating as Hop-a-Jet Flight 280 departed Boston Logan International Airport (BOS) without clearance, thereby precipitating a conflict/near-collision with an Embraer E190 jet operating as JetBlue Flight 206.

The Embraer, then inbound from Tennessee’s Nashville International Airport (BNA), was forced to perform a go-around.

The incident, which occasioned neither injuries nor damage, occurred at 18:55 EST on 27 February 2023. BOS tower had instructed the pilots of the Learjet—then being operated as a Part 91 repositioning flight—to line-up and wait on Runway 09 as the JetBlue Embraer E190 had previously been cleared to land on Runway 04R.

BOS Runways 04R and 09 intersect.

The Learjet crew acknowledged the BOS tower controller’s instruction but proceeded, nevertheless, to initiate a takeoff roll. Alerted by BOS’s Airport Surface Detection Equipment, Model X (ASDE-X)—a surveillance system that allows air traffic controllers to track surface movement of aircraft and vehicles by dint of a combination of radar, multilateration, and satellite technologies—the tower controller issued go-around instructions to the JetBlue Embraer.

Multilateration, known also as hyperbolic positioning, is the process of locating a given object by accurately computing the Time Difference Of Arrival (TDOA) of a signal emitted from said object to three or more receivers.

The closest proximity between the two aircraft occurred near the point at which BOS Runways 04R and 09 intersect, and at an altitude of approximately thirty-feet AGL—while the JetBlue E190 was in its landing flare.

The JetBlue pilots reported catching sight of the LR60 crossing Runway 04 on Runway 09 as they crossed the former runway’s threshold and initiated the flare. The JetBlue crew stated, also, that they were unable to estimate the distance between the two aircraft.

The Learjet’s PIC reported he and his SIC had heard a clearance that “seems to be line-up and wait." The pilot further stated “he probably responded to the clearance, but in his mind, they were cleared for takeoff.”

While climbing out of BOS, the LR60 crew was provided a phone number by ATC and instructed to call such upon landing—a default protocol in instances involving potential FAR violations.

During the prescribed call, BOS tower officials notified the Hop-a-Jet LR60 crew they’d  taken off without authorization, necessitated the forced go-around of a JetBlue Embraer E190 cleared to land on Runway 04, and passed within four-hundred-feet of the arriving Embraer. Both LR60 pilots prudently filed NASA Aviation Safety Report System reports following their dressing-down by ATC.

During a subsequent NTSB interview, the LR60 SIC set forth: “I cannot understand what happened to me during the clearance. The only thing that comes to my mind is that the cold temperature in Boston affected me. I was not feeling completely well and had a stuffed nose. As we lined up, I asked my work partner if we were cleared for takeoff, and [he] said yes. We were both convinced that we were cleared for takeoff.”

FMI: www.ntsb.gov