Narrative:

While departing runways 4L; 32R; and landing and departing runway 9R; in the middle of coordinating fix ownership a missed approach occurred at the marker for runway 4R. I had an aircraft on runway 9L and told southern local controller (slc) to get in trail of that aircraft. Slc asked again who they were in trail of and I told them again. I then changed the plan seeing that my aircraft did not roll fast enough and told slc to go 140 and I would get in trail of them. I started my aircraft out on a 090 heading and thinking that slc would turn inside of me to the 140 heading. The northern line manager (nlm) observed the go around in a turn; I looked and seen that slc did not turn inside of me and I stopped my aircraft at 3;000 so that the go around could top me in the turn. After a lot of confusion they still thought the plan was for them to get in trail of me. The operations manager (OM) became upset by the fact that local's were not talking; when in fact I did give a second instruction. However it was not received for what ever reason. My monitor observed the aircraft turn out the window and I confirmed it via the radar display thus I felt confident that the second instruction was heard and being complied with. Recommendation; several items could be looked at in this situation. First; [we need] a better system to coordinate across the tower. Currently we have a large island with several sound deadening layers; first would be the plexiglass required by osha standards; the second would be a large box that holds a cru-X laptop and other unneeded equipment that sits to the west of the plexiglass essentially forming a wall; and the third would be the persons on the platform. All three hamper coordination and cause an unsafe situation to occur. The rdvs (rapid deployment voice switch) would normally be a good use for this action however this takes too much time as we do not train to use the rdvs for this action. There are too many buttons on the rdvs; trying to find the correct button in a time critical situation is not practical. Not to sound like a broken record; but the fix would be to completely remove the island and in the interim forbid persons from being on the island and remove the lap top and other unneeded equipment off the box.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: ORD Controller described a confused coordination event involving a go around aircraft and a departure; the reporter listing tower physical barriers as causal factors in the incident.

Narrative: While departing Runways 4L; 32R; and landing and departing Runway 9R; in the middle of coordinating fix ownership a missed approach occurred at the marker for Runway 4R. I had an aircraft on Runway 9L and told Southern Local Controller (SLC) to get in trail of that aircraft. SLC asked again who they were in trail of and I told them again. I then changed the plan seeing that my aircraft did not roll fast enough and told SLC to go 140 and I would get in trail of them. I started my aircraft out on a 090 heading and thinking that SLC would turn inside of me to the 140 heading. The Northern Line Manager (NLM) observed the go around in a turn; I looked and seen that SLC did not turn inside of me and I stopped my aircraft at 3;000 so that the go around could top me in the turn. After a lot of confusion they still thought the plan was for them to get in trail of me. The Operations Manager (OM) became upset by the fact that local's were not talking; when in fact I did give a second instruction. However it was not received for what ever reason. My monitor observed the aircraft turn out the window and I confirmed it via the RADAR display thus I felt confident that the second instruction was heard and being complied with. Recommendation; several items could be looked at in this situation. First; [we need] a better system to coordinate across the Tower. Currently we have a large island with several sound deadening layers; first would be the plexiglass required by OSHA standards; the second would be a large box that holds a CRU-X laptop and other unneeded equipment that sits to the west of the plexiglass essentially forming a wall; and the third would be the persons on the platform. All three hamper coordination and cause an unsafe situation to occur. The RDVS (Rapid Deployment Voice Switch) would normally be a good use for this action however this takes too much time as we do not train to use the RDVS for this action. There are too many buttons on the RDVS; trying to find the correct button in a time critical situation is not practical. Not to sound like a broken record; but the fix would be to completely remove the island and in the interim forbid persons from being on the island and remove the lap top and other unneeded equipment off the box.

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.