Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Communication Breakdown; Situational Awareness
Conflict Ground Conflict; Critical; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance; Ground Incursion Runway
Air Traffic Control Issued Advisory / Alert; Flight Crew Rejected Takeoff
Human Factors; Procedure
A DC87 landing roll out on Runway 28R was told to turn left at Taxiway Romeo and hold short of Runway 28L. Cleared an A320 for takeoff on Runway 28L; the DC87 continued west of Runway 28L in front of the A320. The A320 aborted his takeoff on his own after seeing the DC87 crossing. The DC87 [should have] read back hold short of 28L.
During landing at SFO on Runway 28R; ATC issued us taxi instructions. My attention was on handling the aircraft as our speed was still high and we had a direct 15 knot crosswind which made the roll out challenging. My First Officer took the taxi instructions from ATC and read them back. I apparently only heard the first part of those instructions which was to exit Runway 28R at 'R'. Romeo was near the end of Runway 28R. Once I reached 'R' exit I turned left onto the taxiway. Unfortunately; I did not hear the second part of the taxi instructions which was to hold short of 28L. I continued my taxi on 'R' until I heard SFO Tower call the departure to abort their takeoff. Then the Tower told us that we were supposed to hold short of 28L. I turned to my First Officer and asked if we were supposed to hold sort of 28L and he said yes. He was distracted once I was exiting the runway with his after landing flows and he was not paying attention to where I was taxiing. I spoke with the Tower and they said that we did not have a runway incursion. However it was a failure to follow instructions. They submitted a report.
SFO Tower Controller described an aborted takeoff on Runway 28L when observing an aircraft crossing down field without ATC approval.