The acoustic-vortical wave equation is derived describing the propagation of sound in (i) a unidirectional shear flow with a linear velocity profile upon which is superimposed (ii) a uniform cross flow; together with an impedance wall boundary condition representing the effect of a locally reacting acoustic liner in the presence of bias and shear flow. This leads to a third-order differential equation in the presence of cross flow, and in its absence simplifies to the Pridmore–Brown equation (second-order); also the singularity of the Pridmore–Brown equation for zero Doppler-shifted frequency is removed by the cross flow. Because the third-order wave equation has no singularities (except at the sonic condition), its general solution is a linear combination of three linearly independent MacLaurin series in powers of the distance from the wall. The acoustic field in the boundary layer is matched through the pressure and horizontal and vertical velocity components to the acoustic field in a uniform free stream consisting of incident and reflected waves. The scattering coefficients are plotted for several values of the five parameters of the problem, namely the angle of incidence, free stream and cross-flow Mach numbers, specific wall impedance and Helmholtz number using the boundary layer thickness.