Narrative:

When we arrived the tower was closed. It was late and approach had vectored us for runway 34 and handed us over to CTAF. When we switched; we learned there was an aircraft further out coming in to runway 16. The winds were calm. We landed uneventfully. The gate was occupied so we had to wait on runway 34 exit D short of a because there was nowhere to go. Meanwhile we had to advise every inbound aircraft where we were so they would not take the same exit on landing. A helicopter was approaching runway 11 and another air carrier flight was on final to runway 16; the helicopter had to break off his approach when he realized they would be intersecting at the same time. He did this when the air carrier flight was at 300 AGL. We finally got a gate and deplaned the passengers. We then had to reposition the aircraft in the dark of night. There was another aircraft waiting for our gate. He was waiting on taxiway a short of D and we had to reposition down a near B. They were in our way. Operations told us we would have to back taxi [on runway 34/16] on CTAF frequency. We noticed there was an airport vehicle moving up runway 16 to go park us at our remote location. We made an announcement on CTAF that we would be back taxiing. We scanned for traffic and saw nothing. About halfway up the runway we saw a landing light. It appeared really close. We made another announcement and we heard nothing from the inbound traffic. I hurried and exited and made another announcement. He landed seconds later. The driver of the vehicle told us he was alarmed when we took the runway because he had heard the incoming aircraft announce he was on final at 5;000 ft. I don't understand why the flightcrew would not say something after hearing us take the runway twice. When we exited the runway; we turned on TCAS and noticed he was at 1;000 AGL.I feel there should be an operable tower at hpn until the airport closes. The airport is located close to the busiest airspace in the world and one of the busiest airports for corporate traffic. There is no reason operations should be advising aircraft to back taxi on [active but uncontrolled] runways. It is bad enough going to uncontrolled airport late at night after long days. It is much worse doing it into a very busy and congested airport. Further; I think ramp or company should be trained and qualified to reposition the aircraft themselves.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A conflict with another aircraft on approach as he was back taxiing on the active runway led an air carrier Captain to address his several concerns about operating into HPN at night after the Tower is closed.

Narrative: When we arrived the Tower was closed. It was late and approach had vectored us for Runway 34 and handed us over to CTAF. When we switched; we learned there was an aircraft further out coming in to Runway 16. The winds were calm. We landed uneventfully. The gate was occupied so we had to wait on Runway 34 exit D short of A because there was nowhere to go. Meanwhile we had to advise every inbound aircraft where we were so they would not take the same exit on landing. A helicopter was approaching Runway 11 and another air carrier flight was on final to Runway 16; the helicopter had to break off his approach when he realized they would be intersecting at the same time. He did this when the air carrier flight was at 300 AGL. We finally got a gate and deplaned the passengers. We then had to reposition the aircraft in the dark of night. There was another aircraft waiting for our gate. He was waiting on Taxiway A short of D and we had to reposition down A near B. They were in our way. Operations told us we would have to back taxi [on Runway 34/16] on CTAF frequency. We noticed there was an airport vehicle moving up Runway 16 to go park us at our remote location. We made an announcement on CTAF that we would be back taxiing. We scanned for traffic and saw nothing. About halfway up the runway we saw a landing light. It appeared really close. We made another announcement and we heard nothing from the inbound traffic. I hurried and exited and made another announcement. He landed seconds later. The driver of the vehicle told us he was alarmed when we took the runway because he had heard the incoming aircraft announce he was on final at 5;000 FT. I don't understand why the flightcrew would not say something after hearing us take the runway twice. When we exited the runway; we turned on TCAS and noticed he was at 1;000 AGL.I feel there should be an operable Tower at HPN until the airport closes. The airport is located close to the busiest airspace in the world and one of the busiest airports for corporate traffic. There is no reason Operations should be advising aircraft to back taxi on [active but uncontrolled] runways. It is bad enough going to uncontrolled airport late at night after long days. It is much worse doing it into a very busy and congested airport. Further; I think ramp or company should be trained and qualified to reposition the aircraft themselves.

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.