Narrative:

This was a very bizarre incident. In 12000 hours of professional flight time; I have never experienced an occurrence like this one. After a very thorough and detailed departure briefing with my copilot; we were given taxi instructions to taxi to runway 4L at jfk. During the taxi; we were instructed by ATC ground control to taxi via ke and left on Q to hold short of north. Then we were instructed to follow a B777 on taxiway B and to monitor the tower frequency. We were then instructed by the tower to turn right on MB and then turn right onto runway 31L and lineup and wait. The tower controller was speaking so fast that his words were all mixed together and hard to understand. I responded with; 'it sounded like you said to turn left on MB; but the runway is to our right.' he then repeated his instructions more coherently so that we were able to understand him.then suddenly within a few seconds of the lineup and wait instruction; we were given cleared for immediate takeoff on runway 31L. We were completely taken by surprise as ATC never told us to expect runway 31L; and never asked us if we could accept a runway 31L intersection departure from intersection MB. Then; again within seconds; as we are running our lineup checklist prior to adding power for takeoff; the tower asked us if we are going to takeoff. I had to stop the lineup checklist to respond to him that we were running our lineup checks and would then start the takeoff roll. We didn't even have a chance to realize that we were departing on a runway other than the one we had briefed for the RNAV SID. So without knowing what heading we were expected to fly; when handed off to departure; I immediately informed him that we were flying runway heading; at which the departure ATC instructed us to make an immediate left turn to some heading. Then within a very short time; we were told to fly heading 180 degrees to intercept V16. I read the clearance back and quickly realized that V16 was not on our clearance until much farther down the flight plan well beyond the RNAV SID. Not wanting to wander into the path of other aircraft; I joined the departure course hoping that it was also part of V16 until I could get in contact with ATC as he was somewhat busy with other traffic. We were then instructed by ATC to turn left as we were not flying the course they instructed us to fly. ATC then asked us if we were flying V16 and I told him that we understood that we were to join and fly the RNAV SID and that if he wanted us to join V16 he would need to tell us what fixes delineated the section of airway he wanted us to join. ATC asked us if we were familiar with V16 and I said that we were not. He then assigned us a heading to fly before clearing us direct to a fix on our flight plan.after being switched to another frequency; we were told that we had deviated and caused a traffic conflict and that we should expect a phone call at our destination. It should be noted that our flight plan did not include V16 until about another 30 miles further along our flight plan clearance. All of this occurred immediately after takeoff; before we even had a chance to run our after takeoff check list. As of this writing; we have not received instructions to call any ATC facility.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An air taxi Captain reported receiving confusing taxi instructions to a different runway than originally issued. Once airborne the aircraft was issued headings to an airway not contained in their flight plan.

Narrative: This was a very bizarre incident. In 12000 hours of professional flight time; I have never experienced an occurrence like this one. After a very thorough and detailed departure briefing with my copilot; we were given taxi instructions to taxi to runway 4L at JFK. During the taxi; we were instructed by ATC ground control to taxi via KE and left on Q to hold short of N. Then we were instructed to follow a B777 on Taxiway B and to monitor the Tower frequency. We were then instructed by the Tower to turn right on MB and then turn right onto Runway 31L and lineup and wait. The Tower controller was speaking so fast that his words were all mixed together and hard to understand. I responded with; 'It sounded like you said to turn left on MB; but the runway is to our right.' He then repeated his instructions more coherently so that we were able to understand him.Then suddenly within a few seconds of the lineup and wait instruction; we were given cleared for immediate takeoff on Runway 31L. We were completely taken by surprise as ATC never told us to expect Runway 31L; and never asked us if we could accept a Runway 31L intersection departure from intersection MB. Then; again within seconds; as we are running our Lineup Checklist prior to adding power for takeoff; the tower asked us if we are going to takeoff. I had to stop the Lineup Checklist to respond to him that we were running our Lineup Checks and would then start the takeoff roll. We didn't even have a chance to realize that we were departing on a runway other than the one we had briefed for the RNAV SID. So without knowing what heading we were expected to fly; when handed off to departure; I immediately informed him that we were flying Runway heading; at which the departure ATC instructed us to make an immediate left turn to some heading. Then within a very short time; we were told to fly heading 180 degrees to intercept V16. I read the clearance back and quickly realized that V16 was not on our clearance until much farther down the flight plan well beyond the RNAV SID. Not wanting to wander into the path of other aircraft; I joined the departure course hoping that it was also part of V16 until I could get in contact with ATC as he was somewhat busy with other traffic. We were then instructed by ATC to turn left as we were not flying the course they instructed us to fly. ATC then asked us if we were flying V16 and I told him that we understood that we were to join and fly the RNAV SID and that if he wanted us to join V16 he would need to tell us what fixes delineated the section of airway he wanted us to join. ATC asked us if we were familiar with V16 and I said that we were not. He then assigned us a heading to fly before clearing us direct to a fix on our flight plan.After being switched to another frequency; we were told that we had deviated and caused a traffic conflict and that we should expect a phone call at our destination. It should be noted that our flight plan did not include V16 until about another 30 miles further along our flight plan clearance. All of this occurred immediately after takeoff; before we even had a chance to run our after takeoff check list. As of this writing; we have not received instructions to call any ATC facility.

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.