EI132 was an Airbus A330-300 aircraft, owned and operated by the Irish airline Aer Lingus, destined for Shannon, Ireland, and carrying 12 crew members and 260 passengers.

According to the NTSB report, the US Airways flight had already achieved its V1 speed and could no longer safely abort takeoff.

While coordinating other traffic, he forgot about releasing that aircraft and cleared the US Airways flight for takeoff.

Local procedures required the east controller to wait until the departure on 15R had passed through the intersection before clearing the aircraft on Runway 9 for takeoff.

Further, to reduce the chance of this type of incident happening again, aircraft must not be held on Runway 9 waiting for their takeoff clearance while there is a departure on 15R.