r supwoods: sounds horribly familiar to the well-documented incident* of a BOAC VC10 at JNB. I can't remember the exact details, but during the after-start checks, the autothrottles were inadvertently selected, and before anyone could figure WTHIH?, the mighty Conways went to full thrust and blew a set of aircraft steps onto the roof of the cargo sheds.
*In the BOAC Air Safety Digest.