Narrative:

We were landing and departing 28s. It was busy. I told aircraft Y to turn off of runway 28 onto non active runway 19L and hold short of F contact ground. He turned off of the active runway. I cleared aircraft X for takeoff. As I cleared aircraft X; aircraft Z was taxing to runway 28L. Aircraft Z was crossing the ones and blocked my view of aircraft Y. Aircraft Z had just crossed 19R and was on F. Aircraft X said he was aborting takeoff; due to aircraft on the runway. [Aircraft X] taxied back to runway 28L. Everything looked good from my angle. Even at this time I don't know if I would have caught it. View blocked by taxing aircraft. Plenty of time for aircraft Y to exit. Nothing blocking him from moving forward. I think aircraft Y was concerned about the size of aircraft Z and held. Never understand why pilots will not fully clear an active runway.I scanned the runway. [I need to] look more closely at the asde. I asked my local assist and he said it was really hard to tell. I think it was just one of those weird situations where everyone was at the wrong place at the wrong time. In the future I will advise the aircraft to fully exit the runway. Move up as far as they can to hold short of F. Definitely something that I will not let happen again. With summer and constant 28 I am glad I was able to experience this now. I will be more aware of this pitfall in the future.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Controller working Local position describes incident where he could not see slow moving aircraft exiting runway position because view was blocked by another aircraft; while departing aircraft rejects take-off.

Narrative: We were landing and departing 28s. It was busy. I told Aircraft Y to turn off of Runway 28 onto non active Runway 19L and hold short of F contact Ground. He turned off of the active runway. I cleared Aircraft X for takeoff. As I cleared Aircraft X; Aircraft Z was taxing to runway 28L. Aircraft Z was crossing the ones and blocked my view of Aircraft Y. Aircraft Z had just crossed 19R and was on F. Aircraft X said he was aborting takeoff; due to aircraft on the runway. [Aircraft X] taxied back to Runway 28L. Everything looked good from my angle. Even at this time I don't know if I would have caught it. View blocked by taxing aircraft. Plenty of time for Aircraft Y to exit. Nothing blocking him from moving forward. I think Aircraft Y was concerned about the size of Aircraft Z and held. Never understand why pilots will not fully clear an active runway.I scanned the runway. [I need to] look more closely at the ASDE. I asked my local assist and he said it was really hard to tell. I think it was just one of those weird situations where everyone was at the wrong place at the wrong time. In the future I will advise the aircraft to fully exit the runway. Move up as far as they can to hold short of F. Definitely something that I will not let happen again. With summer and constant 28 I am glad I was able to experience this now. I will be more aware of this pitfall in the future.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site 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.