You’ve probably heard the morbid axiom: FAA regulations are written in blood. Many of the rules fattening the books governing pilots and air traffic controllers were brought about by unfortunate incidents.
“Line up and wait” (LUAW) is a significant example. It’s an inherently risky maneuver: a controller places an airplane on a runway but doesn’t let them take off due to other traffic using the runway or on final to that same runway. While saving precious time—the essence of ATC ops—things can go south if it’s not managed properly. We are, after all, talking about placing non-moving airplanes on the one piece of concrete every other airplane in the vicinity wants to use.
