An incident that could have easily become the United States’ worst airliner tragedy in decades was narrowly averted Friday when a two airliners at JFK Airport nearly collided as one crossed into a runway while another was in middle of taking off.
At around 8:45 pm on Friday, a Delta aircraft was heading down a runway when an American Airlines plane drove into the runway – directly in the path of the accelerating Delta plane.
The Delta pilots slammed on the brakes while the American Airlines pilots hit the gas to create space, and tragedy was just barely avoided; the Delta plane carrying more than 150 people came to a stop just 1,000 feet from the American Airlines aircraft.
The Delta plane, identified as Flight 1943, returned to the gate and ordered all passengers off the plane, with the flight rescheduled for Saturday and passengers given free hotel stays by the airline.
Meanwhile, American Airlines has not commented on the incident. The plane involved – Flight 106 heading to London – remained on schedule, taking off on Friday and landing in London at its scheduled time.
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