Local controller described an emergency event when a landing aircraft hit a sign when exiting the la...

Narrative:

A piper 38 tomahawk was cleared to land runway 28 following a C172. The tomahawk landed without incident; but when he turned off the runway at intersection TYA3 and the crossing runway 31; he ended up in the middle of a paved surface that was between taxiway's a and A3 and runway 31. The aircraft came to a stop against the 2;000 feet remaining sign for runway 31. When I noticed the aircraft was not on a taxiway and headed for the wrong area; I asked if he needed any help and the pilot stated that he thought he just hit a sign. There was no injury to the pilot and he thought there was no damage to the aircraft; but since he thought he hit the sign; we called the airport authority to check out the situation and once they determined that he had indeed hit the sign; we proceeded to make the proper notifications and collect the necessary data. Fdso release the aircraft over the phone and allowed the aircraft to be moved to the FBO. I should have paid more attention to the aircraft as he rolled out and been prepared to give runway exiting instructions sooner. I did not recognize the callsign to be local and therefore could have better prepped the pilot about the confusing intersection. I allowed myself to be caught up writing up the recent arrival strips and should have been more vigilant in my scan to help catch the pilot's error. Additionally; this intersection over the years has had similar incidents at night; because of the confusing set up; I would recommend that the airport authority review the current set up at this intersection and try to determine if there is a better solution than the current one. All in all though; if I had spent just a few more seconds watching the aircraft exit the runway and ensured that the pilot was familiar; there would most likely have not been any incident.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Local Controller described an emergency event when a landing aircraft hit a sign when exiting the landing runway at a reported confusing intersection.

Narrative: A Piper 38 Tomahawk was cleared to land Runway 28 following a C172. The Tomahawk landed without incident; but when he turned off the runway at intersection TYA3 and the crossing Runway 31; he ended up in the middle of a paved surface that was between Taxiway's A and A3 and Runway 31. The aircraft came to a stop against the 2;000 feet remaining sign for Runway 31. When I noticed the aircraft was not on a taxiway and headed for the wrong area; I asked if he needed any help and the pilot stated that he thought he just hit a sign. There was no injury to the pilot and he thought there was no damage to the aircraft; but since he thought he hit the sign; we called the airport authority to check out the situation and once they determined that he had indeed hit the sign; we proceeded to make the proper notifications and collect the necessary data. FDSO release the aircraft over the phone and allowed the aircraft to be moved to the FBO. I should have paid more attention to the aircraft as he rolled out and been prepared to give runway exiting instructions sooner. I did not recognize the callsign to be local and therefore could have better prepped the pilot about the confusing intersection. I allowed myself to be caught up writing up the recent arrival strips and should have been more vigilant in my scan to help catch the pilot's error. Additionally; this intersection over the years has had similar incidents at night; because of the confusing set up; I would recommend that the airport authority review the current set up at this intersection and try to determine if there is a better solution than the current one. All in all though; if I had spent just a few more seconds watching the aircraft exit the runway and ensured that the pilot was familiar; there would most likely have not been any incident.

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.

Attributes
ACN	1105536
Time
Date	201308
Local Time Of Day	0001-0600
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	PA-38 Tomahawk
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Taxi
Route In Use	None
Person 1
Function	Local
Qualification	Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Ground Event / Encounter Object Ground Excursion Taxiway Inflight Event / Encounter Object

Local controller described an emergency event when a landing aircraft hit a sign when exiting the landing runway at a reported confusing intersection.