Narrative:

Weather had backed the airport up. Planes had no gates and were being parked everywhere. We were on west flow configuration at the time that most of the aircraft were parked in the 10 pad and 32L is only fed departures one way so ground was coordinating crossings of 32L to and from the 10 pad (west of 32L). Due to a prediction of wind shift; the configuration was changed to plan X. With plan X; departures are fed 2 different ways to 32L therefore ground no longer could coordinate runway crossings as there was nowhere for the traffic to go. All aircraft in the 10 pad were switched to third local's frequency in order to let local work out the crossings with the departure traffic. With the changing of operational configuration; we also had to reconfigure the rdvs; everyone 'reconed' but due to current tower cab construction/reconfiguration the third local position turned out to be setup improperly preventing departure control from contacting local; a situation that wasn't recognized until it was too late. I was departing 32L from T10 and working gate waits back to the east side of 32L to give back to ground. I had called a sequence with departures telling flight abcc he would be number two. I instructed flight abcc to 'line up and wait.' I issued flight abcc a takeoff clearance to fly heading 330 (this heading was used in order to keep the westbound departure east of the arrival descent area (dump zone) for the arrivals to runway 10; 9R; 4R for this configuration) however I had used the wrong call sign with this take off clearance accidentally calling him flight adbc. He asked to verify the take off clearance was for him; I said something like 'yes; that was for flight abcc to ZZZ; if I called you something else; sorry' and he responded something like 'ok; flight abcc cleared for take off'. Next I believe I started working with aircraft that needed to get to the 10 pad to park or come back from the 10 pad to get to gates. I was dealing with these aircraft for about 2 minutes when I had heard from across the cab the sounds of someone talking through the loud speaker. A few seconds later; someone said something like 'it sounds like someone is talking over here;' and I heard possibly a supervisor or OM say something like 'that's because that position needs to be forwarded over to T10.' this peeked my interest enough for me to look at the situation and think something (completely different than what was actually happening) was happening. I thought; 'what would someone need to talk to me about?' it was then that I realized it had been about 2 minutes since I had talked with flight abcc; I looked at the radar and saw that flight abcc had turned west into the dump (something commonly done by departure control on a 'look and go' basis); seeing this and hearing that someone was trying to talk to me and it having been almost 2 minutes since flight abcc's departure I thought that flight abcc had switched to departure on his own (since I had gotten busy with other aircraft) and that departure had turned flight abcc into the dump and was calling me to just send down his paperwork; unfortunately this wasn't the case. Thinking I needed to get departure the paperwork; I scanned flight abcc's strip to departure and; I guess out of habit; keyed up on the frequency and shipped flight abcc even though I 'knew' he was already talking to departure. Flight abcc then replied contact departure; I then went to put an aircraft in position when I realized that flight abcc had replied to me! I said out loud 'what the hell?' part of which was on frequency. How could flight abcc reply to me to go to departure when he was already talking to departure? I immediately punched down to west departure and said something like 'if you have flight abcc turn him!' departure was just initially talking with him and turned him to a 040 heading and said something like 'I'm turning him back to a forty' I replied something like 'ok; I've got them both in sight' referring to flight abcc and the traffic out the window just west of the airport being vectored to runway 10. It turns out that departure was trying to get a hold of me asking what flight abcc was doing. I didn't hear this because we were improperly configured with our position radios. Had I heard departure's actual transmission to me I would have turned flight abcc back out of the dump zone prior to shipping him. Unfortunately I didn't hear departure; I looked at the situation and saw something 'normal' out of a situation that in fact was unusual and reacted based on the situation I thought I saw. Had flight abcc read back a heading; I would have known that he misunderstood his heading and I would have corrected him prior to making a wrong turn; unfortunately he just responded 'cleared for takeoff' and it is now apparent he thought he was issued a westbound heading. If I hadn't tied myself up with crossing the runway with gate waits; I would have loaded the runway and been waiting for flight abcc to be far enough out to roll the next westbound; therefore paying more attention to flight abcc and I would have noticed his wing dipping to the left; in which case I would have corrected him. Additionally; had I not 'out of habit' keyed up and shipped flight abcc to departure when I was scanning his paperwork down to departure then he would have still been on my frequency and eventually departure would have gotten a hold of me through supervisors since he wouldn't have been talking to flight abcc; or flight abcc would have eventually asked if he was supposed to contact departure (which would have been a red flag that he in fact wasn't talking to departure and had turned into the dump on his own) and the situation would have been corrected then. I recommend several things: 1) don't work ground from local; had we just decided to feed T10 from the north; like we were doing prior to the configuration change; then ground would have still had taxiway M to coordinate runways crossings with me; ground would have still been working it's gate waits; and I wouldn't have been distracted working ground from local. 2) when we change configurations; the supervisors/OM's/controller in charge's/whomever is in charge should make sure that our radios have been configured properly and ensure that any position that needs to be forwarded to another position gets forwarded. 3) it would be nice if pilots read back headings with their take off clearance. I know this isn't required but it would help. 4) I should have completely verified the situation prior to acting on what I thought was going on. 5) departure should have continually tried to get a hold of me once they realized the flight was turning into the dump; possibly through another local or supervisor. Departure may have been doing this; I'm not sure; and I just know I didn't hear from him until I punched down to him after I realized he wasn't actually talking to the flight. Any one of these could have broken the chain of this series of unfortunate events.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: ORD Controller provided a very detailed report concerning the complications encountered during a busy traffic period resulting from weather delays; full gates; communications problems and configuration changes.

Narrative: Weather had backed the airport up. Planes had no gates and were being parked everywhere. We were on west flow configuration at the time that most of the aircraft were parked in the 10 pad and 32L is only fed departures one way so Ground was coordinating crossings of 32L to and from the 10 pad (west of 32L). Due to a prediction of wind shift; the configuration was changed to Plan X. With Plan X; departures are fed 2 different ways to 32L therefore Ground no longer could coordinate runway crossings as there was nowhere for the traffic to go. All aircraft in the 10 pad were switched to third Local's frequency in order to let local work out the crossings with the departure traffic. With the changing of operational configuration; we also had to reconfigure the RDVS; everyone 'RECONed' but due to current tower cab construction/reconfiguration the third Local position turned out to be setup improperly preventing Departure Control from contacting Local; a situation that wasn't recognized until it was too late. I was departing 32L from T10 and working gate waits back to the East side of 32L to give back to Ground. I had called a sequence with departures telling Flight ABCC he would be number two. I instructed Flight ABCC to 'Line Up And Wait.' I issued Flight ABCC a takeoff clearance to fly heading 330 (this heading was used in order to keep the westbound departure east of the arrival descent area (dump zone) for the arrivals to Runway 10; 9R; 4R for this configuration) however I had used the wrong call sign with this take off clearance accidentally calling him Flight ADBC. He asked to verify the take off clearance was for him; I said something like 'Yes; that was for Flight ABCC to ZZZ; if I called you something else; sorry' and he responded something like 'OK; Flight ABCC cleared for take off'. Next I believe I started working with aircraft that needed to get to the 10 pad to park or come back from the 10 pad to get to gates. I was dealing with these aircraft for about 2 minutes when I had heard from across the cab the sounds of someone talking through the loud speaker. A few seconds later; someone said something like 'It sounds like someone is talking over here;' and I heard possibly a Supervisor or OM say something like 'That's because that position needs to be forwarded over to T10.' This peeked my interest enough for me to look at the situation and think something (completely different than what was actually happening) was happening. I thought; 'what would someone need to talk to me about?' It was then that I realized it had been about 2 minutes since I had talked with Flight ABCC; I looked at the RADAR and saw that Flight ABCC had turned West into the dump (something commonly done by departure control on a 'look and go' basis); seeing this and hearing that someone was trying to talk to me and it having been almost 2 minutes since Flight ABCC's departure I thought that Flight ABCC had switched to departure on his own (since I had gotten busy with other aircraft) and that departure had turned Flight ABCC into the dump and was calling me to just send down his paperwork; unfortunately this wasn't the case. Thinking I needed to get departure the paperwork; I scanned Flight ABCC's strip to departure and; I guess out of habit; keyed up on the frequency and shipped Flight ABCC even though I 'knew' he was already talking to departure. Flight ABCC then replied contact departure; I then went to put an aircraft in position when I realized that Flight ABCC had replied to me! I said out loud 'What the Hell?' part of which was on frequency. How could Flight ABCC reply to me to go to departure when he was already talking to departure? I immediately punched down to West Departure and said something like 'If you have Flight ABCC turn him!' departure was just initially talking with him and turned him to a 040 heading and said something like 'I'm turning him back to a Forty' I replied something like 'OK; I've got them both in sight' referring to Flight ABCC and the traffic out the window just West of the airport being vectored to Runway 10. It turns out that Departure was trying to get a hold of me asking what Flight ABCC was doing. I didn't hear this because we were improperly configured with our position radios. Had I heard Departure's actual transmission to me I would have turned Flight ABCC back out of the dump zone prior to shipping him. Unfortunately I didn't hear Departure; I looked at the situation and saw something 'normal' out of a situation that in fact was unusual and reacted based on the situation I thought I saw. Had Flight ABCC read back a heading; I would have known that he misunderstood his heading and I would have corrected him prior to making a wrong turn; unfortunately he just responded 'cleared for takeoff' and it is now apparent he thought he was issued a westbound heading. If I hadn't tied myself up with crossing the runway with gate waits; I would have loaded the runway and been waiting for Flight ABCC to be far enough out to roll the next westbound; therefore paying more attention to Flight ABCC and I would have noticed his wing dipping to the left; in which case I would have corrected him. Additionally; had I not 'out of habit' keyed up and shipped Flight ABCC to Departure when I was scanning his paperwork down to Departure then he would have still been on my frequency and eventually Departure would have gotten a hold of me through supervisors since he wouldn't have been talking to Flight ABCC; or Flight ABCC would have eventually asked if he was supposed to contact Departure (which would have been a red flag that he in fact wasn't talking to Departure and had turned into the dump on his own) and the situation would have been corrected then. I recommend several things: 1) Don't work Ground from Local; Had we just decided to feed T10 from the North; like we were doing prior to the configuration change; then Ground would have still had Taxiway M to coordinate runways crossings with me; Ground would have still been working it's gate waits; and I wouldn't have been distracted working ground from Local. 2) When we change configurations; the supervisors/OM's/CIC's/whomever is in charge should make sure that our radios have been configured properly and ensure that any position that needs to be forwarded to another position gets forwarded. 3) It would be nice if pilots read back headings with their take off clearance. I know this isn't required but it would help. 4) I should have completely verified the situation prior to acting on what I thought was going on. 5) Departure should have continually tried to get a hold of me once they realized the Flight was turning into the dump; possibly through another local or supervisor. Departure may have been doing this; I'm not sure; and I just know I didn't hear from him until I punched down to him after I realized he wasn't actually talking to the Flight. Any one of these could have broken the chain of this series of unfortunate events.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 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.