Narrative:

While working local control south at night while arriving and departing westbound; a departure release was issued to me from the local control north position; for a northbound heavy A340 off the far south runway 27; which I owned as local south. In our westbound configuration; northbound jets receive an initial 290 degree heading; owned by local north; and southbound jets receive an initial 270 degree heading; owned by local south. The heavy A340 departed on the initial 290 degree heading off runway 27 and started a very shallow climbout. Local north proceeded by departing an LJ45 off the far north runway 26R on an initial 290 degree heading as well; just as the heavy A340 was about 1 mile upwind with a very slow ground speed. Since the LJ45 was not 'operating directly behind a heavy jet' since the runway 27R and runway 27 parallels are greater than 2;500 ft wide and both aircraft were on parallel headings with no crossing flight paths; separation needed only to be 3 miles. The LJ45 rotated and accelerated very fast and the local north saw that there was not even going to be 3 miles between the heavy A340 and the LJ45. Instead of turning the LJ45 further right to at least a heading of 305 degrees for divergence separation; the supervisor decided to build in extra space by turning the LJ45 in behind the heavy A340 with a left turn to a 240 degree heading. By the time the LJ45 was established directly behind the heavy A340; it was at the same altitude of the heavy no more than 3.5 miles behind it. Then the controller instructed the LJ45 to turn right back to a 290 degree heading and contact departure. Not only was there a loss of radar separation; but there was definitely not a 2 minute wake turbulence delay for crossing flight paths immediately after departure. The local control north perhaps was distraction as they had to inquire to me as to where the heavy A340 was in his phase of flight; leading me to believe that they forgot about the departure release they had given me.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: MIA Local Controller witnessed loss of wake turbulence separation when adjacent Local Controller vectored departure aircraft behind heavy without proper spacing.

Narrative: While working Local Control South at night while arriving and departing westbound; a departure release was issued to me from the Local Control North position; for a northbound heavy A340 off the far south Runway 27; which I owned as Local South. In our westbound configuration; northbound jets receive an initial 290 degree heading; owned by Local North; and southbound jets receive an initial 270 degree heading; owned by Local South. The heavy A340 departed on the initial 290 degree heading off Runway 27 and started a very shallow climbout. Local North proceeded by departing an LJ45 off the far north Runway 26R on an initial 290 degree heading as well; just as the heavy A340 was about 1 mile upwind with a very slow ground speed. Since the LJ45 was not 'operating directly behind a heavy jet' since the Runway 27R and Runway 27 parallels are greater than 2;500 FT wide and both aircraft were on parallel headings with no crossing flight paths; separation needed only to be 3 miles. The LJ45 rotated and accelerated very fast and the Local North saw that there was not even going to be 3 miles between the heavy A340 and the LJ45. Instead of turning the LJ45 further right to at least a heading of 305 degrees for divergence separation; the Supervisor decided to build in extra space by turning the LJ45 in behind the heavy A340 with a left turn to a 240 degree heading. By the time the LJ45 was established directly behind the heavy A340; it was at the same altitude of the heavy no more than 3.5 miles behind it. Then the Controller instructed the LJ45 to turn right back to a 290 degree heading and contact Departure. Not only was there a loss of radar separation; but there was definitely not a 2 minute wake turbulence delay for crossing flight paths immediately after departure. The Local Control North perhaps was distraction as they had to inquire to me as to where the heavy A340 was in his phase of flight; leading me to believe that they forgot about the departure release they had given me.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.