Narrative:

The first officer was making the takeoff on runway 7L. Everything was normal until about 100 KTS [when] the tower called 'air carrier X cancel your takeoff clearance.' it took a second to realize what he meant but I took command and aborted the takeoff. We came to a complete stop. I made announcements and we exited the runway. As we stopped we saw a blue and white cessna; not sure of type; across the line at E7 taxiway. The tower and been trying to call him but no response. He did a 180 in front of us and taxied back to E6. We exited behind him and across the runway to return to takeoff. We had to check our fuel and wait for brakes to cool. Highest brake temp was around 430C. We contacted dispatch but we still had the legal takeoff fuel when the brakes cooled so we departed for our destination. It appears the cessna was attempting to cross runway 7L without clearance or he was lost. We didn't notice him until we were at the taxiway due to line up of jets to that point on taxiway. The only problem I had was the tower using the phrase; 'cancel your takeoff clearance'. I believe at that point in the takeoff they should have used a more urgent phrase like; 'abort' or 'reject your takeoff'. The few seconds delay in understanding what he wanted could have been a problem if the cessna had entered the runway. The cessna was either on ground or the wrong frequency but I don't know what could have been done to avoid that problem.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Air Carrier on takeoff roll from PHX at approximately 100 KTS was instructed by the Tower to cancel takeoff clearance because of a runway incursion downfield; the reporter suggesting more urgent ATC phraseology be used such as 'abort' or 'reject takeoff' in these types of events.

Narrative: The First Officer was making the takeoff on Runway 7L. Everything was normal until about 100 KTS [when] the Tower called 'Air Carrier X cancel your takeoff clearance.' It took a second to realize what he meant but I took command and aborted the takeoff. We came to a complete stop. I made announcements and we exited the runway. As we stopped we saw a blue and white Cessna; not sure of type; across the line at E7 Taxiway. The Tower and been trying to call him but no response. He did a 180 in front of us and taxied back to E6. We exited behind him and across the runway to return to takeoff. We had to check our fuel and wait for brakes to cool. Highest brake temp was around 430C. We contacted Dispatch but we still had the legal takeoff fuel when the brakes cooled so we departed for our destination. It appears the Cessna was attempting to cross Runway 7L without clearance or he was lost. We didn't notice him until we were at the taxiway due to line up of jets to that point on taxiway. The only problem I had was the Tower using the phrase; 'cancel your takeoff clearance'. I believe at that point in the takeoff they should have used a more urgent phrase like; 'abort' or 'reject your takeoff'. The few seconds delay in understanding what he wanted could have been a problem if the Cessna had entered the runway. The Cessna was either on Ground or the wrong frequency but I don't know what could have been done to avoid that problem.

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.