An air carrier ready for departure at slc misunderstood the controllers phraseology and crossed the ...

Narrative:

We taxied to [runway] 34L A3 for take off. Holding short of the runway; an rj landed in front of us on the runway but we couldn't see him as he rolled out. The tower used non-standard terminology; which both the pilot flying and I; the pilot not flying; thought he said; 'taxi into position; aircraft on a six mile final; and be ready to go.' we started our taxi onto the runway and I read back; 'taxi into position;' but because that wasn't the new terminology we were supposed to use; I added; 'you mean line up and wait.' at that time; the tower said; 'I do not have authority to give you that.' the captain tried to stop the aircraft because now we were confused about what the tower had originally said and if we were in fact cleared into position. I told them that we had already crossed the line and the tower responded; 'I don't have any problem with that and you are cleared for take off.' we were really confused what had happened but continued with the take off. Looking back; we do not know what the original clearance was exactly; but we understood it to be a clearance into position and hold. Maybe he couldn't say hold because of the traffic on final; or the rj; which we couldn't see if it cleared the runway. If there is another type of terminology that we can expect to hear maybe due to traffic or visibility restrictions; then we should be aware of that.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An Air Carrier ready for departure at SLC misunderstood the controllers phraseology and crossed the hold line. The reporter questioned the phraseology used by the controller.

Narrative: We taxied to [Runway] 34L A3 for take off. Holding short of the runway; an RJ landed in front of us on the runway but we couldn't see him as he rolled out. The Tower used non-standard terminology; which both the pilot flying and I; the pilot not flying; thought he said; 'Taxi into position; aircraft on a six mile final; and be ready to go.' We started our taxi onto the runway and I read back; 'Taxi into position;' but because that wasn't the new terminology we were supposed to use; I added; 'You mean line up and wait.' At that time; the Tower said; 'I do not have authority to give you that.' The Captain tried to stop the aircraft because now we were confused about what the Tower had originally said and if we were in fact cleared into position. I told them that we had already crossed the line and the Tower responded; 'I don't have any problem with that and you are cleared for take off.' We were really confused what had happened but continued with the take off. Looking back; we do not know what the original clearance was exactly; but we understood it to be a clearance into position and hold. Maybe he couldn't say hold because of the traffic on final; or the RJ; which we couldn't see if it cleared the runway. If there is another type of terminology that we can expect to hear maybe due to traffic or visibility restrictions; then we should be aware of that.

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.

Attributes
ACN	979355
Time
Date	201111
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	SLC.Airport
State Reference	UT
Environment
Flight Conditions	IMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	B737-300
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Takeoff
Person 1
Function	First Officer Pilot Not Flying
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 231
Person 2
Function	Pilot Flying Captain
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 227 Flight Crew Type 10000
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy

An air carrier ready for departure at slc misunderstood the controllers phraseology and crossed the hold line. The reporter questioned the phraseology used by the controller.