Originally Posted by
Vito
I’ll throw this out there for discussion. SouthWest’s call to Tower, stating “Southwest Holding short Rwy 18L , we’re ready” was totally unnecessary and One can argue was the catalyst of this entire incident.
Number One, Why make that call? Who cares?. It accomplished nothing except to clog up the Tower freq with unnecessary chatter while another aircraft is attempting to fly a Cat 3 approach.
Number 2, This call prompted the Tower controller to issue a dubious takeoff clearance, which, if the call was never made, the Takeoff clearance would never have been issued.
Number 3, it set up a situation where SW had to rush his takeoff roll, if he were even aware enough to realize how close FedEx was.
And this call possibly caused Tower, out of habit, to clear SW for takeoff, once Tower issued the takeoff clearance to SW, he may have realized he made a mistake, but Hoped, Southwest would make a quick takeoff and no harm no foul.
Sometimes, my F/O will call Tower to state we’re holding #1 for takeoff even though we both see there is arriving traffic on final. I will speak up now to remind them, a Holding #1 call is not necessary and serves no purpose most of the time.
I generally agree except in my experience smaller airport towers seem to wait for you to check in at the end of the runway while larger airports don’t (which likely includes AUS).