A340 and 777 in Near Miss on JFK Runway

Bethany Whitfield

Wednesday, June 29, 2011 at 10:57 PM ET

Verified

An EgyptAir 777 sitting on the tarmac at JFK.
**(Photo courtesy of Manny Gonzalez.)

Key Takeaways:

A Lufthansa jet on takeoff at JFK aborted its run to avoid a near-collision with an EgyptAir plane that mistakenly crossed its active runway.
An air traffic controller intervened, instructing the Lufthansa pilot to apply emergency brakes, preventing an incident that was witnessed by other pilots.
The EgyptAir jet reportedly made a wrong turn, and the FAA is investigating the incident which caused a 40-minute delay for the Lufthansa flight due to "hot brakes."

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A Lufthansa jet with 286 passengers on board had to slam on its brakes during takeoff from JFK to avoid a near-collision with an EgyptAir jet this past week, according to the FAA.** **

The incident occurred Monday night, shortly after an Airbus A340 operated by Lufthansa was cleared for takeoff on Runway 22R at the New York airport. The aircraft had initiated its takeoff roll and was accelerating down the runway when a Boeing 777 operated by EgyptAir crossed the 22R hold short line, said an FAA spokesman.