Narrative:

We were cleared for approach and to land on runway 21 in sat. Citation traffic ahead touched down and was asked to hold short of south runway for departing flight. The traffic complied. Tower then asked the citation where they were parking and instructed the citation to back taxi on runway 21 to turn off at one of the taxiways that they had already passed. At this point we were 300 feet above the ground within a mile to touchdown. Tower realized the mistake at about the same time we did. We were in the process of beginning a go around when tower instructed us to cancel landing and climb to 4;000 feet. As we were being vectored around for another landing; the sat approach controller wanted to turn us from a northeast heading to approximately 090 heading which conflicted with VFR traffic that was 2-300 feet above us that we noted on the TCAS. The traffic was neither climbing nor descending. We advised approach control that we would be unable to comply with their requested heading due to traffic. They advised us that the traffic had us in sight; but if we didn't want to turn that was fine. We never received a RA or a TA as a result. From our perspective; ATC failed to have adequate awareness of the traffic they were controlling. In the future; I think back taxis should only be allowed if there is no conflicting landing traffic within 10 miles. This would ensure enough time for the taxiing traffic to exit the runway. Regarding the proximate traffic; less than 500 feet of clearance is definitely not enough in my opinion. I believe that 1000 feet should be standard in all cases.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Air carrier pilot landing SAT initiated a go around when ATC permitted a back taxi operation on the landing runway followed by a conflict with VFR during the vectors back for another approach.

Narrative: We were cleared for approach and to land on Runway 21 in SAT. Citation traffic ahead touched down and was asked to hold short of south Runway for departing flight. The traffic complied. Tower then asked the Citation where they were parking and instructed the Citation to back taxi on Runway 21 to turn off at one of the taxiways that they had already passed. At this point we were 300 feet above the ground within a mile to touchdown. Tower realized the mistake at about the same time we did. We were in the process of beginning a go around when Tower instructed us to cancel landing and climb to 4;000 feet. As we were being vectored around for another landing; the SAT Approach Controller wanted to turn us from a northeast heading to approximately 090 heading which conflicted with VFR traffic that was 2-300 feet above us that we noted on the TCAS. The traffic was neither climbing nor descending. We advised Approach Control that we would be unable to comply with their requested heading due to traffic. They advised us that the traffic had us in sight; but if we didn't want to turn that was fine. We never received a RA or a TA as a result. From our perspective; ATC failed to have adequate awareness of the traffic they were controlling. In the future; I think back taxis should only be allowed if there is no conflicting landing traffic within 10 miles. This would ensure enough time for the taxiing traffic to exit the runway. Regarding the proximate traffic; less than 500 feet of clearance is definitely not enough in my opinion. I believe that 1000 feet should be standard in all cases.

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.