Narrative:

I was working all radar positions combined and had aircraft X coming from the north landing runway 36 VFR. Aircraft had been reporting that staying above 4;000 was not possible to maintain VFR (local control departure pie goes up to 4;000). I called local control and did a point out for aircraft X descending through his departure corridor. My request was approved. I told aircraft X to continue his descent. He was number two in a three plane sequence to runway 36. The local controller called me back several minutes later and asked if I could put aircraft X on a 220 heading so he could; 'get aircraft Y off of 4R.' I was puzzled by local control's request as it would delay aircraft X for no reason and place him right over the top of the airport and destroy my sequence. I 'un-abled' his request and said; 'no just wait for aircraft X he will be through the extended centerline in about sixty seconds.' local control responded; 'ok.' the next thing I know aircraft Y is climbing off of runway 4R and turning to a 080 heading right toward aircraft X who at this time was just to the right (already passed) the extended centerline for runway 4R. There was no target resolution and maybe 400 ft of altitude separation. I was in shock that local control launched and put a plane in that situation and wondered why he didn't leave aircraft Y on runway heading. After I got off position I spoke to the tower controller in charge who was in the break room and was informed that when the local controller had asked me to turn aircraft X to a 220 heading he had already cleared aircraft Y for takeoff. Had I known that aircraft Y was rolling I would have immediately turned aircraft X to avoid conflict. I would have turned him to a 360 [heading] though because the suggested 220 heading could have been even worse than the actual outcome. The locals' failure to tell me what was actually happening along with his decision to turn aircraft Y to a 080 heading created a bad situation. I also learned from the controller in charge that the pilot of aircraft Y switched back to the tower frequency and asked local control what had happened after I had switched aircraft Y to the center. Aircraft Y never asked me or said anything about the situation.local control should have told me that he had erroneously cleared someone for takeoff after accepting my point-out instead of requesting a heading that made zero sense to me for an aircraft that was already in a sequence.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: LIT Approach Controller reports of an aircraft that takes off into the path of an aircraft that he had just told the Local Controller to wait for. Pilot report of same incident reports of an aircraft very close to them as they climbed out of LIT.

Narrative: I was working all radar positions combined and had Aircraft X coming from the north landing Runway 36 VFR. Aircraft had been reporting that staying above 4;000 was not possible to maintain VFR (Local Control departure pie goes up to 4;000). I called Local Control and did a point out for Aircraft X descending through his departure corridor. My request was approved. I told Aircraft X to continue his descent. He was number two in a three plane sequence to Runway 36. The Local Controller called me back several minutes later and asked if I could put Aircraft X on a 220 heading so he could; 'get Aircraft Y off of 4R.' I was puzzled by Local Control's request as it would delay Aircraft X for no reason and place him right over the top of the airport and destroy my sequence. I 'un-abled' his request and said; 'No just wait for Aircraft X he will be through the extended centerline in about sixty seconds.' Local Control responded; 'OK.' The next thing I know Aircraft Y is climbing off of Runway 4R and turning to a 080 heading right toward Aircraft X who at this time was just to the right (already passed) the extended centerline for Runway 4R. There was no target resolution and maybe 400 FT of altitude separation. I was in shock that Local Control launched and put a plane in that situation and wondered why he didn't leave Aircraft Y on runway heading. After I got off position I spoke to the Tower CIC who was in the break room and was informed that when the Local Controller had asked me to turn Aircraft X to a 220 heading he had already cleared Aircraft Y for takeoff. Had I known that Aircraft Y was rolling I would have immediately turned Aircraft X to avoid conflict. I would have turned him to a 360 [heading] though because the suggested 220 heading could have been even worse than the actual outcome. The Locals' failure to tell me what was actually happening along with his decision to turn Aircraft Y to a 080 heading created a bad situation. I also learned from the CIC that the pilot of Aircraft Y switched back to the Tower frequency and asked Local Control what had happened after I had switched Aircraft Y to the Center. Aircraft Y never asked me or said anything about the situation.Local Control should have told me that he had erroneously cleared someone for takeoff after accepting my point-out instead of requesting a heading that made zero sense to me for an aircraft that was already in a sequence.

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.