Corporate jet flight crew describe a very confusing departure from vny caused initially by the tower...

Narrative:

Vny was extremely busy with lots of delays and an unusually high volume of traffic both corporate and GA due to the holidays. All radio frequencies were busy with lots of blocked calls. We were eventually cleared to taxi B to C hold short 16L. We got in line behind 4 other jets. When it was our turn at number one holding short of runway 16L; this is the radio call we received from tower; 'callsign; cross rwy 16L; cleared for take off rwy 16R'. We briefed the newhall 8 departure procedure; and both the LNAV and VNAV were armed. Once airborne; gear and flaps up; at approximately 1;700 feet; vny tower calls and says; 'callsign; hold; socal needs more space'. Frequency congested we tried to query; and in the meantime thought he meant hold heading and so didn't turn left to 110 heading. Rapid rising terrain and traffic becoming a big concern. I started a slight climb for terrain and watched outside and TCAS for traffic. Tower then called and said; 'callsign; hold in position'. We then knew that they thought we were still on the ground. While I was flying to avoid the ground and traffic; the captain noticed the FD auto-sequenced for a right turn back to the departure and directed a right turn. GPWS was alerting and I climbed more and then got a resolution advisory (RA) alert. As this is happening; we get the change to socal and they direct a left turn and we got another RA and leveled off and got a terrain alert and socal also said to level off. Once cleared of all threats we continued to the altitude and heading given. Socal asked us if we got the newhall 8 departure and we said we had but got a call from tower to hold what we thought was the runway heading in all the confusion. Things happened incredibly fast and we did the best we could to comply with confusing tower instructions and simply safely fly the aircraft to avoid terrain and traffic. The event started with the messed up; confusing; and incomplete radio call from vny tower. The controllers are also only human and he obviously lost situational awareness with us. He either forgot he cleared us for take off or was not supposed to clear us for take off. Also socal became overwhelmed with traffic and wanted tower to slow the traffic and we got caught in the confusion. In the original confusion I voiced a gut feeling to turn left; but we agreed that they probably want us to go straight; with a what we hoped would be quick instructions of a heading and altitude. It seems everyone was confused for a short and scary few minutes. Contributing factors were the numerous small prop airplanes that kept stepping on radio call; and atcs over optimism in trying to please both commercial corporate jets and all the recreational prop planes. For our part we worked together very well and very calm to safely operate the plane. In the future I will try to be even more vigilant when the traffic and radios are congested.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Corporate jet flight crew describe a very confusing departure from VNY caused initially by the Tower issuing instructions to hold; believing the aircraft was still on the ground. This resulted in the flight crew not following the SID and experienced several TCAS RA's and EGPWS terrain warnings.

Narrative: VNY was extremely busy with lots of delays and an unusually high volume of traffic both corporate and GA due to the holidays. All radio frequencies were busy with lots of blocked calls. We were eventually cleared to taxi B to C hold short 16L. We got in line behind 4 other jets. When it was our turn at number one holding short of runway 16L; this is the radio call we received from tower; 'Callsign; cross rwy 16L; cleared for take off rwy 16R'. We briefed the Newhall 8 departure procedure; and both the LNAV and VNAV were armed. Once airborne; gear and flaps up; at approximately 1;700 feet; VNY tower calls and says; 'Callsign; hold; SOCAL needs more space'. Frequency congested we tried to query; and in the meantime thought he meant hold heading and so didn't turn left to 110 heading. Rapid rising terrain and traffic becoming a big concern. I started a slight climb for terrain and watched outside and TCAS for traffic. Tower then called and said; 'Callsign; hold in position'. We then knew that they thought we were still on the ground. While I was flying to avoid the ground and traffic; the Captain noticed the FD auto-sequenced for a right turn back to the departure and directed a right turn. GPWS was alerting and I climbed more and then got a Resolution Advisory (RA) alert. As this is happening; we get the change to SOCAL and they direct a left turn and we got another RA and leveled off and got a terrain alert and SOCAL also said to level off. Once cleared of all threats we continued to the altitude and heading given. SOCAL asked us if we got the Newhall 8 departure and we said we had but got a call from tower to hold what we thought was the runway heading in all the confusion. Things happened incredibly fast and we did the best we could to comply with confusing tower instructions and simply safely fly the aircraft to avoid terrain and traffic. The event started with the messed up; confusing; and incomplete radio call from VNY tower. The controllers are also only human and he obviously lost Situational Awareness with us. He either forgot he cleared us for take off or was not supposed to clear us for take off. Also SOCAL became overwhelmed with traffic and wanted tower to slow the traffic and we got caught in the confusion. In the original confusion I voiced a gut feeling to turn left; but we agreed that they probably want us to go straight; with a what we hoped would be quick instructions of a heading and altitude. It seems everyone was confused for a short and scary few minutes. Contributing factors were the numerous small prop airplanes that kept stepping on radio call; and ATCs over optimism in trying to please both commercial corporate jets and all the recreational prop planes. For our part we worked together very well and very calm to safely operate the plane. In the future I will try to be even more vigilant when the traffic and radios are congested.

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.

Attributes
ACN	1226765
Time
Date	201412
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	VNY.Airport
State Reference	CA
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Dassault-Breguet Undifferentiated or Other Model
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Takeoff
Route In Use	SID NEWHALL8
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	First Officer Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Multiengine Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Person 2
Function	Pilot Not Flying Captain
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Conflict Airborne Conflict Deviation - Procedural Clearance Deviation - Track / Heading All Types Inflight Event / Encounter CFTT / CFIT

Corporate jet flight crew describe a very confusing departure from vny caused initially by the tower issuing instructions to hold; believing the aircraft was still on the ground. This resulted in the flight crew not following the SID and experienced several TCAS RA's and egpws terrain warnings.