The near-miss on the runway at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City in January got a lot of attention, and for good reason. The near-collision happened when an American Airlines 777 preparing to depart for London taxied onto an active runway as a Delta Airlines 737 bound for the Dominican Republic was already on its takeoff roll, reportedly already at better than 100 mph. The AAL flight had a combined 152 passengers and crew onboard; the Delta Flight had 151 in all. Luckily, a sharp controller saw the 777 taxi onto the runway and immediately canceled the 737's takeoff clearance, which in layman's terms means, "Stop!" And the 737 pilot did, indeed, stop, reportedly about 1,000 feet short of the 777. How did it happen? In part, it's surely the usual suspects-pilots losing track of where they were at the airport. It's something that shouldn't happen but does. For starters, the taxiway layout at JFK is weird, with taxiways Alpha and Bravo running a ring around the terminal and with at least one taxiway changing identifying letters mid-taxi. The 777 had been cleared to take off on Runway 4L, but it apparently anticipated the coming turn it should have taken to taxi to the departure end and instead turned onto the active runway, the one with a Delta 737 taking off on it.
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