Narrative:

A PA32 had landed runway 36 and was on his roll out. The visibility on a clear day from the tower to that runway at night is very difficult and limited. The ground controller (ground control) and an additional developmental were observing the situation as well. The PA32 appeared to make a left hand turn and with coordination with ground control instructed the aircraft to taxi straight ahead to the ramp. This is a very common procedure in the tower. Aircraft landing lights were then pointed directly at the tower; which indicates that there was an aircraft on the runway. The ground control and I thought this was the PA32 and that he had made a 180 degree turn on the runways. I had an aircraft on a 2.5 mile final. I tried many times to instruct the PA32 to exit the runway; however the aircraft on the runway kept rolling south. I emphasized the urgency in my voice tone. The aircraft on the runway then made the next right turn off and continued his taxi south on taxiway a. The aircraft on final landed safely and there was no loss of separation; nor was there the risk of loss of separation. I simply would have sent him around. We later realized it was a BE55 who had taxied onto the runway without authorization headed south. After the event I believe what happened was the PA32 was on his roll out and passed behind the BE55 on the runway. The BE55 lights pointed directly at the tower obscuring the view behind him of the PA32 exiting the runway. There were several of us in the tower who witnessed the event and we all believed the aircraft going south on the runway was the PA32. Placement of our tower makes visual identification of aircraft on or near runway 36 very difficult; especially at night. Barring construction of a new/taller tower with better field placement; the addition of asde-X would be extremely helpful. If asde-X were in place during this incident; aircraft identification would not have been lost due to poor visibility limitations from the tower and a more timely runway exit would have been possible for the aircraft that taxied onto the runway without authorization.

Related reports:

Google
 

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Controller described a runway incursion at LIT; where the addition of ASDE-X may have helped mitigate Tower visibility limitations.

Narrative: A PA32 had landed Runway 36 and was on his roll out. The visibility on a clear day from the Tower to that runway at night is very difficult and limited. The Ground Controller (GC) and an additional Developmental were observing the situation as well. The PA32 appeared to make a left hand turn and with coordination with Ground Control instructed the aircraft to taxi straight ahead to the ramp. This is a very common procedure in the Tower. Aircraft landing lights were then pointed directly at the Tower; which indicates that there was an aircraft on the runway. The GC and I thought this was the PA32 and that he had made a 180 degree turn on the runways. I had an aircraft on a 2.5 mile final. I tried many times to instruct the PA32 to exit the runway; however the aircraft on the runway kept rolling south. I emphasized the urgency in my voice tone. The aircraft on the runway then made the next right turn off and continued his taxi south on Taxiway A. The aircraft on final landed safely and there was no loss of separation; nor was there the risk of loss of separation. I simply would have sent him around. We later realized it was a BE55 who had taxied onto the runway without authorization headed south. After the event I believe what happened was the PA32 was on his roll out and passed behind the BE55 on the runway. The BE55 lights pointed directly at the Tower obscuring the view behind him of the PA32 exiting the runway. There were several of us in the Tower who witnessed the event and we all believed the aircraft going south on the runway was the PA32. Placement of our Tower makes visual identification of aircraft on or near Runway 36 very difficult; especially at night. Barring construction of a new/taller Tower with better field placement; the addition of ASDE-X would be extremely helpful. If ASDE-X were in place during this incident; aircraft ID would not have been lost due to poor visibility limitations from the Tower and a more timely runway exit would have been possible for the aircraft that taxied onto the runway without authorization.

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.