Narrative:

At the time of the event we were experiencing thunderstorms; lightning; hail; flooding in the cab; delays and flight plan timeouts. We were also short staffed as a result of a sickout and a controller performing an extra duty. We also had a tech ops employee in the cab patching multiple leaks in the ceiling during the incident.the ground controller verified coordination on a departure with sct who coordinated a time and reiterated the altitude (maintain 4;000). The ground controller relayed this to the tower controller; who misheard the 4;000 and thought he heard 5;000.the environmental factors were an overwhelming factor in this scenario (weather; cab flooding; staffing; confusion); but the one thing that might have prevented the mis-issued altitude was the reiterated altitude assignment. Since 4;000 is part of the LOA there could be (and was) potential confusion.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: ONT Tower controllers reported of a miscommunication relating to a clearance. Aircraft departing was restricted to 4;000 feet; the Controller mistakenly heard then issued 5;000. Distractions were reportedly involved.

Narrative: At the time of the event we were experiencing thunderstorms; lightning; hail; flooding in the cab; delays and flight plan timeouts. We were also short staffed as a result of a sickout and a controller performing an extra duty. We also had a tech ops employee in the cab patching multiple leaks in the ceiling during the incident.The Ground Controller verified coordination on a departure with SCT who coordinated a time and reiterated the altitude (maintain 4;000). The ground controller relayed this to the Tower Controller; who misheard the 4;000 and thought he heard 5;000.The environmental factors were an overwhelming factor in this scenario (weather; cab flooding; staffing; confusion); but the one thing that might have prevented the mis-issued altitude was the reiterated altitude assignment. Since 4;000 is part of the LOA there could be (and was) potential confusion.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.