Originally Posted by
deltahotel
There may be red stop bars, but my experience at JFK over the last 13 years is that they are not lit. However they also have flashing amber lights all the way across the rwy entrances/crossing points which are hard to miss.
Yes, but the AA crew thought they were cleared to cross the runway, so they would be expecting the flashing lights. The AA crew got disorientated with where they were on the field.
As for why they continued on to London, I wonder what was said during the dressing down phone call to tower? Was it clearly communicated that it was a serious near collision, or just a failure to follow taxi instructions? There is no way for pilot flying to be switched out I wonder (In order to continue the flight to London)? Even switched with possible cruise or training pilot on board already?
SPECULATION: It seems the female crewmember was running radio calls while male was taxiing. Then after the "please call the towner" ATC command, the male crew member comes on, kind of wound up, reading back what he thought they were cleared for (his tone is kind of implying an ATC read out error). I wonder who was sitting in the right seat and possibly saw the aircraft taking off right at them as they crossed the runway?