Narrative:

I was working the midnight shift and it was getting close to the first morning departures. TRACON called and coordinated a couple of opposite direction arrivals from the west to land on runway 10 which I approved. An airbus called for taxi and I taxied them to runway 28 and called center for release. They issued a time slot. As the traffic developed it became apparent that to meet the release time the airbus would need to depart between the 2 opposite direction arrivals which wasn't a problem because they were far enough in trail of each other to safely fit the airbus out between them but the spacing was going to be minimal. In the mean time a dash 8 called to taxi and I taxied them to runway 33R which is routine but I forgot the runway was still being shown as closed. As the first arrival to runway 10 was rolling out; the dash 8 was approaching runway 33R for departure. I made a transmission to the traffic on runway 10 instructing them where to clear the runway and then cleared the dash 8 for take off on runway 33R. I then made a transmission to the airbus to clear them for take off on runway 28 and exchanged traffic with the opposite direction arrival that was now on about a 9 mile final to runway 10. The asde-X alerted runway 33R closed as the dash 8 was rotating about 2;500 ft down the runway. My attention was on the airbus at the time making sure he started his departure roll in a timely manner so as to not compromise the separation with the opposite direction arrival. I then immediately called the airport authority to advise them that I had inadvertently departed on runway 33R and they advised that it was not a problem since they had cleared the runway a short time before and just didn't have a chance to call and advise that the runway was open. The dash 8 departed without incident. Because I wasn't busy; and traffic was light; I did not follow some of the procedures put in place to provide checks and balances. I did not place the appropriate memory jogger in place to call attention to the runway closure. Had I done that I would have been able to verify that the runway was indeed open prior to issuing a take off clearance. Also I did a visual scan of the runway and the racd but did not scan the asde-X prior to issuing the clearance to the dash 8. The asde-X was still showing the runway closed which was another missed opportunity to catch the error before it occurred. Also I should not have let the complexity of the traffic on the other side of the airport distract me from being more thorough with the routine operation on runway 33R.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Tower Controller distracted by opposite direction traffic cleared a departure on a closed runway; a number of preventive actions were not completed prior to the incident.

Narrative: I was working the midnight shift and it was getting close to the first morning departures. TRACON called and coordinated a couple of opposite direction arrivals from the west to land on Runway 10 which I approved. An Airbus called for taxi and I taxied them to Runway 28 and called Center for release. They issued a time slot. As the traffic developed it became apparent that to meet the release time the Airbus would need to depart between the 2 opposite direction arrivals which wasn't a problem because they were far enough in trail of each other to safely fit the Airbus out between them but the spacing was going to be minimal. In the mean time a Dash 8 called to taxi and I taxied them to Runway 33R which is routine but I forgot the runway was still being shown as closed. As the first arrival to Runway 10 was rolling out; the Dash 8 was approaching Runway 33R for departure. I made a transmission to the traffic on Runway 10 instructing them where to clear the runway and then cleared the Dash 8 for take off on Runway 33R. I then made a transmission to the Airbus to clear them for take off on Runway 28 and exchanged traffic with the opposite direction arrival that was now on about a 9 mile final to Runway 10. The ASDE-X alerted Runway 33R closed as the Dash 8 was rotating about 2;500 FT down the runway. My attention was on the Airbus at the time making sure he started his departure roll in a timely manner so as to not compromise the separation with the opposite direction arrival. I then immediately called the airport authority to advise them that I had inadvertently departed on Runway 33R and they advised that it was not a problem since they had cleared the runway a short time before and just didn't have a chance to call and advise that the runway was open. The Dash 8 departed without incident. Because I wasn't busy; and traffic was light; I did not follow some of the procedures put in place to provide checks and balances. I did not place the appropriate memory jogger in place to call attention to the runway closure. Had I done that I would have been able to verify that the runway was indeed open prior to issuing a take off clearance. Also I did a visual scan of the runway and the RACD but did not scan the ASDE-X prior to issuing the clearance to the Dash 8. The ASDE-X was still showing the runway closed which was another missed opportunity to catch the error before it occurred. Also I should not have let the complexity of the traffic on the other side of the airport distract me from being more thorough with the routine operation on Runway 33R.

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.