What should I actually do in this situation in a busy airport? This happened a few days ago at LHR but I’m thinking of it more deeply now.
Tower and Ground ATC sent the controller change in progress message to all aircraft and left, so we were all in the Unicom, then a B78X behind me tailgated me very closely and announced take off even though he was 2nd in line which I interpreted it where he wanted me to takeoff — and then a A388 on the other side announced holding short: I wasn’t sure if it was to assure the aircraft on final that he won’t enter the runway or he’s giving way for me to takeoff first, but I assumed the 2nd option.
A B738 was also on final, not that short though to where tower would let one plane takeoff starting at the hold short line: I estimate around a minute before touchdown.
I was rather pressured from that: the tailgating, the other announcing hold short, and a plane on final that has one minute left before touchdown.
I dismissed that thought of waiting when ATC says it, I actually never read deeply the rule on it but my instincts were originally waiting because it’s “stand by”. So in the process of taking off, tower came back so I immediately went and requested departure (since I was still lining up at that time). I was cleared for take off, and thankfully no go arounds happened.
My question remains: was I suppossed to wait despite the B78X and the surroundings making me have to take off?
Image doesn’t show the actual situation, but the plane behind me is the same person (B78X) I was talking about. I unfortunately cannot retrieve the replay as it just crashes everytime.
I’m not really sure if that’s fully answering the question the op asked. If I’m not mistaken, in the scenario provided there was no ATC, as the controllers were swapping out.
@mara_sumera Please correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe the question was if she should have waited for takeoff until the controller change was completed or if it was ok to announce takeoff on Unicom and complete the takeoff before the second controller logged on.
I think one should wait for the ATC change until it’s completed in this situation.
The airport HAVE controllers, they’re just swapping shifts.
Whether that shift takes awhile, does not really tell you that the airport has become controller-less.
Shame on those guys for sorta pushing and picking on ya.
I was sort of in this situation once, but sort of. Click here if you care to read it.
There was a network disruption, but I didn’t know it at the time, all I know was that ATC just disappeared in a super busy airport with 20 planes in sequence behind me, in an event.
I wasn’t being impatient, I panicked due to the sheer number of people behind me, all stalled for a very significant amount of time - with me holding short at the front line. If planes have honks I’m sure that scene would’ve turned into a very noisy airport.
So I announced my take-off to UNICOM.
And as the tip of my plane’s nose entered the runway…
WHOOP! I disappeared into detention world.
The controller apparently was still there in another dimension, saw me, then hit the ghosting button.
So lesson learned for me: Unless the ATC specifically declared that it’s closing, always treat the airport as controlled. Let 'em wait behind you or even impatiently go through you, don’t do what I did.
I feel that I’ve essentially answered this in my first reply, hence I noted it was a “short answer”.
The “stand by” portion of the controller change broadcast message carries weight - it’s basically the outgoing controller informing pilots to AWAIT further instructions from the incoming controller.
This means that if you’re pending taxi clearance from ATC, you can expect clearance from the incoming controller. Same logic applies if you’re pending pushback and takeoff clearance.
Doing any of the above without clearance wouldn’t align with the spirit of the Expert Server. It also places the pilot at risk of causing either a ground conflict or a Go-Around of an aircraft on final. We’ve seen this happen countless times.
I do commend OP for asking and raising awareness on this though, and of course will be more informed moving forward.
