Narrative:

IFR weather; light rain and snow visibility just over 1 SM. An A320 was cleared to line up and wait on runway 4R and told to be ready for take off as soon as the previous arrival vacated the runway. An E190 was on a five mile final for runway 4R. Previous arrival to 4R was a C402 that I knew would be quick to vacate the runway. The A320 was holding at the runway 4R ILS hold line and was taking a long time to go into position. The E190 was then informed of one departure prior to arrival but was still cleared to land. With the E190 on a 2.5 mile final; the A320 was cleared for an immediate takeoff. The A320 did not start takeoff roll in a timely manner and the E190 was issued a go around while at approximately a 2 mile final. The E190 was then issued a 360 degree heading but did not respond or had their transmission blocked. Heading 360 degrees and maintain 3;000 ft was then reissued to the E190 which was acknowledged. The asde-X alarmed as the E190 was just starting their turn to 360 degrees as the A320 was approximately 3;000 ft down runway 4R on departure roll. Altitude of the E190 over the runway was unknown. Weather conditions were deteriorating rapidly. The A320 did not go into position quickly partially because of the poor conditions. The E190 should not have ever been given a landing clearance unless the A320 was already rolling. The E190 should have been issued a go around earlier given the poor conditions. Final vector could have been told to increase the separation on final to allow multiple departures waiting for runway 4R with deicing holdover times.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: BOS Controller described a last minute go around event when traffic taxied into position was slow to take off resulting in the go around; the reporter indicating the landing traffic should have been vectored earlier.

Narrative: IFR weather; light rain and snow visibility just over 1 SM. An A320 was cleared to line up and wait on Runway 4R and told to be ready for take off as soon as the previous arrival vacated the runway. An E190 was on a five mile final for Runway 4R. Previous arrival to 4R was a C402 that I knew would be quick to vacate the runway. The A320 was holding at the Runway 4R ILS hold line and was taking a long time to go into position. The E190 was then informed of one departure prior to arrival but was still cleared to land. With the E190 on a 2.5 mile final; the A320 was cleared for an immediate takeoff. The A320 did not start takeoff roll in a timely manner and the E190 was issued a go around while at approximately a 2 mile final. The E190 was then issued a 360 degree heading but did not respond or had their transmission blocked. Heading 360 degrees and maintain 3;000 FT was then reissued to the E190 which was acknowledged. The ASDE-X alarmed as the E190 was just starting their turn to 360 degrees as the A320 was approximately 3;000 FT down Runway 4R on departure roll. Altitude of the E190 over the runway was unknown. Weather conditions were deteriorating rapidly. The A320 did not go into position quickly partially because of the poor conditions. The E190 should not have ever been given a landing clearance unless the A320 was already rolling. The E190 should have been issued a go around earlier given the poor conditions. Final vector could have been told to increase the separation on final to allow multiple departures waiting for Runway 4R with deicing holdover times.

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.