Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Situational Awareness
ATC Issue All Types; Inflight Event / Encounter Loss Of Aircraft Control
General None Reported / Taken
Procedure; Airport; Human Factors
Winds were strong Easterly 110 at 14. All the Air Carriers and Air Taxis were taking Runway 18 as usual (longest runway) Aircraft Y called ready for taxi and I assigned him Runway 14 via hotel as per Airport Ops designated taxi route. It would require Aircraft Y to back taxi. I taxied him onto runway and told him to advise ready because he had to turn around and taxi down full length of runway and I had Aircraft X taxiing out to Runway 18 who would have been ready to go prior to Aircraft Y and because Aircraft Y was SW bound as well as Aircraft X it made more sense to clear Aircraft X first. Aircraft Y started his turn around on 14 and was holding and did not advise he was ready. I cleared Aircraft X for take off; he went very slowly. I felt maybe he didn't want to go with Aircraft Y in position on 14 with the 4 props running. It was over a minute or more when Aircraft Y said he was ready; I cleared him for take off runway heading. As I said Aircraft X was cleared well ahead of Aircraft Y; regardless the two runways do not intersect their approach ends abut each other. As Aircraft X was rolling on departure his left gear came up (from prop wash and probably the combination of strong East wind) and aborted departure. Wing tip did not strike runway but aircraft was definitely out of control at one point. He taxied back to ramp for hot breaks and eventually departed with no problems. Aircraft Z was also on ramp and radioed Aircraft Y and called back on frequency to tell me that Aircraft Y had used max power on take off and that he had listened to frequency and that Aircraft X had been cleared much before Aircraft Y and since he was facing away from Runway 18 he had no idea Aircraft X was even in vicinity of Runway 14 anymore. In retrospect; I would not clear an aircraft with any sort of prop or jet wash of any significance from Runway 14 with aircraft on Runway 18. As far as I know there is no rule prohibiting it; but after seeing that; I'll never do it again. Legal doesn't always mean safe. Due to the runway set up and the fact that we don't have a taxi route to Runway 14 due the airport restrictions I would never tie up the airport with a take off clearance for as long as it took that aircraft to back taxi down that runway. The main contributing factor was that I did not realize the force of his idling prop wash and the effect it would have on the aircraft on Runway 18. Also the fact that Aircraft X did not take off when he was cleared. If he had an issue with Aircraft Y being on Runway 14 and holding there and concerns about the prop wash I wish he would have said something and I would have cancelled his take off clearance and got Aircraft Y out of there on a take off clearance and went when Aircraft X felt it wasn't an issue. I felt like perhaps he was thinking it but never said anything; just by the way he seemed to balk at starting his take off roll.
Local Controller described an aborted take off apparently due to prop wash from an aircraft departing another runway.