Narrative:

I was working assist 2 for local control on the north side of the airport. When aircraft depart santa monica due to its proximity to our airport we can no longer allow 270 headings to departing aircraft and in some cases stop departures. Aircraft X was departing santa monica; the supervisor gave me the strip and said it was released through departure and not run down. I ran down the aircraft and then released them from santa monica. Departures and 270's were stopped until the aircraft was airborne. When a J/M class aircraft departs this is the normal operation. When a P/Q class aircraft departs santa monica 270s are taken but departures can continue. Up until then every traffic manager and supervisor I had worked with released and ran down P/Q class aircraft themselves after requesting the 270 headings from assist 2 or specified to assist 2 when an aircraft was P/Q class. I assumed as did the local controller that the strip was given to me and the aircraft was not released because it was J/M class. A DH8 departed on a 270 heading prior to departure giving back the 270 headings. The supervisor said separation was not an issue and 270s were shortly returned. Departure keyed in and informed me we did not yet have the 270 headings. To ensure this does not occur again; all supervisors and traffic managers should handle the release of aircraft off santa monica the same. They have the ability and equipment to look up each type aircraft and determine its class and local assist does not have all those resources. If strips were marked as P/Q or J/M it would avoid all confusion.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: LAX Local Control Assistant described an operational deviation when a confused release procedure of a Santa Monica departure was experienced; reporter suggesting all Supervisors and Traffic Managers use identical release techniques.

Narrative: I was working Assist 2 for Local Control on the north side of the airport. When aircraft depart Santa Monica due to its proximity to our airport we can no longer allow 270 headings to departing aircraft and in some cases stop departures. Aircraft X was departing Santa Monica; the Supervisor gave me the strip and said it was released through departure and not run down. I ran down the aircraft and then released them from Santa Monica. Departures and 270's were stopped until the aircraft was airborne. When a J/M class aircraft departs this is the normal operation. When a P/Q class aircraft departs Santa Monica 270s are taken but departures can continue. Up until then every Traffic Manager and Supervisor I had worked with released and ran down P/Q class aircraft themselves after requesting the 270 headings from Assist 2 or specified to Assist 2 when an aircraft was P/Q class. I assumed as did the Local Controller that the strip was given to me and the aircraft was not released because it was J/M class. A DH8 departed on a 270 heading prior to Departure giving back the 270 headings. The Supervisor said separation was not an issue and 270s were shortly returned. Departure keyed in and informed me we did not yet have the 270 headings. To ensure this does not occur again; all Supervisors and Traffic Managers should handle the release of aircraft off Santa Monica the same. They have the ability and equipment to look up each type aircraft and determine its class and Local Assist does not have all those resources. If strips were marked as P/Q or J/M it would avoid all confusion.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.