Narrative:

I arrived at work to find only one cpc was assigned on the shift and I was the only tower rated controller scheduled on the shift until our supervisor was scheduled at XX00. After working on position (local/ground/tcic) for 2 hours and 15 minutes I was relieved by the one cpc on the shift. He had been relieved by the supervisor about 5-10 minutes prior. Airport operations had closed our secondary runway (10/28) for maintenance work on the REIL's. When this happened I coordinated the closure with the one cpc/cpcic/radar controller that was here (the same one that relieved me). During my briefing; knowing he had just come from working the radar/controller in charge position; I gave him a truncated briefing which was essentially the traffic I was working. I had left out the runway closure in my briefing; but had a memory aid out and visible where I prefer it (between the two departure drop tubes). I did my overlap and assumed he had full awareness of the position operations. A while later; it is my understanding that the controller cleared an aircraft for takeoff from the closed runway. This was approximately 2.5 hours into our shift and roughly the same amount of time on position for him. On top of all this; though the runway was called closed; there were no X's placed on either end of the runway. The pilot had; to my knowledge; stated the ATIS reflecting the closure and said nothing as well.I recommend better staffing and a better scheduling practice. There should be better awareness from supervisors of situations like this. For months; we have been working 6 day work weeks with 2 hours ot regularly scheduled on the front or back of our shifts. Typical staffing used to have about 5-6 fpls and 2-3 developmentals/cpcit's. This morning was 1 fpl and 4 developmentals/cpcit's.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: ALB Controller reports an aircraft was cleared for takeoff on a closed runway.

Narrative: I arrived at work to find only one CPC was assigned on the shift and I was the only Tower Rated Controller scheduled on the shift until our Supervisor was scheduled at XX00. After working on position (LOCAL/GROUND/TCIC) for 2 hours and 15 minutes I was relieved by the one CPC on the shift. He had been relieved by the Supervisor about 5-10 minutes prior. Airport operations had closed our secondary runway (10/28) for maintenance work on the REIL's. When this happened I coordinated the closure with the one CPC/CPCIC/RADAR Controller that was here (the same one that relieved me). During my briefing; knowing he had just come from working the RADAR/CIC position; I gave him a truncated briefing which was essentially the traffic I was working. I had left out the runway closure in my briefing; but had a memory aid out and visible where I prefer it (between the two departure drop tubes). I did my overlap and assumed he had full awareness of the position operations. A while later; it is my understanding that the controller cleared an aircraft for takeoff from the closed runway. This was approximately 2.5 hours into our shift and roughly the same amount of time on position for him. On top of all this; though the runway was called closed; there were no X's placed on either end of the runway. The pilot had; to my knowledge; stated the ATIS reflecting the closure and said nothing as well.I recommend better staffing and a better scheduling practice. There should be better awareness from Supervisors of situations like this. For months; we have been working 6 day work weeks with 2 hours OT regularly scheduled on the front or back of our shifts. Typical staffing used to have about 5-6 FPLs and 2-3 Developmentals/CPCIT's. This morning was 1 FPL and 4 developmentals/CPCIT's.

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.