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16 NEW ENGLAND REGION Patrick Sullivan Boston ATCT (BOS) It was a typical Tuesday evening around 11:30 p.m. when Boston Tower (BOS) controller Patrick Sullivan was contacted by the pilot of N477GJ, a BE40, requesting to taxi to Runway 9. Patrick issued taxi instructions of Bravo, Charlie, and Mike with clearance to cross Runway 4L. The pilot read his clearance back incorrectly, which lead Sullivan to reissue the taxi clearance, which the pilot again read back incorrectly. "In the back of your head, you are kind of like, I want to pay attention a little bit more to this particular pilot than normal," Sullivan said, recalling the exchange. As N477GJ started his taxi, he had the wrong code entered into his transponder, which Sullivan noticed as well. The pilot turned off his transponder to reset the code. "I may have even given him the taxi instructions again, just to make sure," Sullivan noted. The airfield at Boston Logan International Airport (BOS) is complex. All the taxiways intersect runways, and it can be confusing for any pilot, particularly corporate pilots who are not routinely going in and out of BOS. To get to Runway 9, you must cross Runway 4L and then make a 90 degree turn on Taxiway Mike, which brings you right to Runway 9. But this pilot did not do that. This pilot did not make the turn onto Taxiway Mike and was heading right for Runway 4R, which had an aircraft on short final. "I jumped up and said, 'STOP!' and he stopped and said, 'Thank you' and asked if he was in trouble," Sullivan recalled. "I said, 'No, you didn't cross the runway, you didn't get onto the runway. Just stay right there.'" Patrick decided the best course of action was to have the pilot hold position and eventually turn around on Runway 4R and taxi him to Runway 9, as initially assigned. By Shannon Lyman (Boston Center, ZBW)

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