A330 Rejected Take-off as Four Aircraft Cross Runway at JFK

On 17 April 2024, Swiss International Air Lines flight 17K, an Airbus A330-343 (HB-JHD) departing John F. Kennedy International Airport for Zurich, rejected its take-off from runway 4L at about 50 kt. Four aircraft had been cleared to cross the runway during its take-off roll. There was no damage and no one was injured.

Local controller 2 (LC2) worked runway 4L. Local controller 1 (LC1) worked runway 4R and the taxiways between the two runways.

After clearing a Delta A321 for take-off from 4L, LC2 told LC1 to cross aircraft behind SWR17K. LC1 replied "roger, behind the departure, I'll go one at each". LC2 cleared SWR17K for take-off at 1645:50. By 1646:00, LC1 had cleared all four aircraft to cross.

Three aircraft had entered 4L and the fourth was approaching the runway edge when the crew rejected the take-off. The nearest was about 4,692 ft away.

JFK procedures require explicit runway and intersection identification between controllers and prohibit phrases such as "one at each". LC1 took "behind the departure" to mean the A321, not SWR17K as LC2 intended.

The NTSB's probable cause: non-standard crossing phraseology and ineffective coordination between LC1 and LC2, which resulted in degraded shared situation awareness and a runway incursion.

‍_{Photo source: Markus Eigenheer from Genève, Schweiz, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic, Wikimedia Commons}

_‍