Lufthansa Jet Narrowly Avoids Crash with EgyptAir Plane at JFK

A packed Lufthansa jet narrowly avoided a deadly collision with an EgyptAir flight that had taxied into its path at Kennedy Airport, terrifying air traffic control tapes revealed.


"Cancel takeoff! Cancel takeoff plans!" shouted a rattled air traffic controller as the massive Lufthansa Airbus A340 steamrolled toward the EgyptAir Boeing 777 just before 7 p.m. Monday.

"Lufthansa 411 heavy is rejecting takeoff," the pilot acknowledged as the plane screeched to a halt just moments before the potential disaster.

"All traffic is stopped right now," the controller informed all planes, according to recordings posted on LiveATC.net.

The narrowly averted disaster came as the Cairo-bound Egyptian airliner had apparently mistakenly turned the wrong way onto Runway 22R.

The error occurred just as the Munich-bound Lufthansa flight was approaching full lift-off speed of 180 mph less than a mile away.

Stunned pilots who witnessed the near tragedy as they circled the airport let out sighs of relief that no one was killed.

"Those two were coming together," radioed one unidentified pilot.

"That was quite a show. I thought it was going to be a short career," a Virgin America pilot arriving from Los Angeles radioed in moments later.

If the two planes had collided, it could easily have turned into a catastrophic calamity - the Lufthansa plane was carrying 286 passengers and the EgyptAir flight can carry up to 346.

After screeching to a halt, the Lufthansa flight crew requested maintenance crews come and check their overheated brakes.

"Maybe we have hot brakes right now. Maybe we take a minute," a flight crew member radioed to the tower.

The flight took off safely about 40 minutes later. The EgyptAir took off 90 minutes later.

LWDLIK- Oh blimey!