Narrative:

I am new pilot at this company. When our departure time arrived; I attempted to get an IFR clearance from departure control. After making initial contact with them; I received no callback with my clearance after several minutes. Our passengers had arrived and started boarding the aircraft. It was hot outside and inside the aircraft. I went ahead and got the engines started and advised the other pilot (one of our senior captains who was flying as my first officer) that I was still waiting for our IFR clearance when he arrived on the flight deck after closing the passenger door. He said that he would get the clearance. He then called departure control and copied down the clearance and read it back. It was a 'hold for release' clearance. I overheard him read back the clearance as I was finishing up some pre-flight checks. We each performed pre-flight checks and duties as we taxied towards the takeoff runway. As we neared the end of the takeoff runway; I asked the other pilot; 'are we released.' I was feeling uneasy about this as I had not heard us receive an IFR release for takeoff. His reply was 'yes.' at this point; I questioned my own situational awareness and figured that I had missed a radio call that he had made; perhaps on the other radio; and that if he said we were released then we were released. We taxied out onto the departure runway; took off and followed the clearance of runway heading and a climb to 2000 feet. The other pilot contacted departure control immediately after departure. Prior to entering the class C airspace that is above; radio communication was established with departure control by the other pilot. When the other pilot called departure control; they said that we had not been released for takeoff. The weather at the time was severe clear and unrestricted visibility. There was also a high volume of VFR traffic in the pattern at the time. There were no known traffic conflicts and there was no conflicting traffic on the TCAS.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Citation flight crew reported taking off from a non-towered airport without obtaining a release as instructed in their clearance.

Narrative: I am new pilot at this company. When our departure time arrived; I attempted to get an IFR clearance from Departure Control. After making initial contact with them; I received no callback with my clearance after several minutes. Our passengers had arrived and started boarding the aircraft. It was hot outside and inside the aircraft. I went ahead and got the engines started and advised the other pilot (one of our senior captains who was flying as my First Officer) that I was still waiting for our IFR clearance when he arrived on the flight deck after closing the passenger door. He said that he would get the clearance. He then called Departure Control and copied down the clearance and read it back. It was a 'Hold for Release' clearance. I overheard him read back the clearance as I was finishing up some pre-flight checks. We each performed pre-flight checks and duties as we taxied towards the takeoff runway. As we neared the end of the takeoff runway; I asked the other pilot; 'Are we released.' I was feeling uneasy about this as I had not heard us receive an IFR release for takeoff. His reply was 'Yes.' At this point; I questioned my own situational awareness and figured that I had missed a radio call that he had made; perhaps on the other radio; and that if he said we were released then we were released. We taxied out onto the departure runway; took off and followed the clearance of runway heading and a climb to 2000 feet. The other pilot contacted Departure Control immediately after departure. Prior to entering the Class C airspace that is above; radio communication was established with Departure Control by the other pilot. When the other pilot called Departure Control; they said that we had not been released for takeoff. The weather at the time was severe clear and unrestricted visibility. There was also a high volume of VFR traffic in the pattern at the time. There were no known traffic conflicts and there was no conflicting traffic on the TCAS.

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.