A Lufthansa Airbus A340-600 was forced to abort its takeoff roll when an EgyptAir 777-300ER nearly crossed right in front of it at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York on Monday evening.
Flight 411 to Munich (D-AIHM) was carrying 286 passengers and crew when it was cleared to takeoff at 6:52pm. (Takeoff clearance is not audible in this recording, but was given, according to a commenter on LiveATC.net.) A few seconds later, an air traffic controller is heard yelling, “Cancel takeoff clearance! Cancel takeoff plans!” at the speeding Airbus.
A seemingly startled pilot radios back, “Lufthansa 411 Heavy is rejecting takeoff!”
The EgyptAir 777-300ER (SU-GDR) operating as Flight 986 to Cairo had been cleared to taxi to the runway, but apparently made a wrong turn and crossed a runway hold line without permission.
Other pilots who witnessed the incident were heard on the air traffic control frequency commenting, “Good catch, Tower,” “Those two were coming together,” and “That was quite a show, thought it was going to be a short career.”
Possibly trying to prevent public scrutiny of the incident, the tower controller warns the Lufthansa pilot, “As you see what’s going on, no need to talk about it on frequency.”
Both flights took off later without incident and arrived at Munich and Cairo safely.
The FAA and NTSB are investigating the incident.
