possible answer to your conundrum...
HendrikJan: If you are still monitoring this, I might propose a scenario.
A pilot is at holding point (or nearby) on a foreign airfield with no real facilities for a long ground stay, where the local authorities and facilities are, (shall we say), not exactly "first world" in all aspects; and where the pilot is in command of a lightly-loaded aircraft, working for an airline that is in deep financial trouble.
He sees, directly ahead of him, an inbound aircraft fly into the ground and disappear in a cloud of dust.
Perhaps he has two choices:
1: abort take off, return to stand, park up, shut down, offload pax, and prepare for himself, crew, aircraft, cargo and pax to be stuck there, in a grotty hotel, more or less indefinitely (or until local authorities decide to let them all go, which if the pilot is a material witness might not be for some time).
2: He pushes TL to TO power, and slips away in the confusion, flying directly over the wreckage trail of the crashed aircraft, (which his pax would not see as they are not looking directly ahead), and mutters "there but for the grace of God" or words to that effect.
I would suggest that Airline management, freight recipients, pax, and crew would all be intensely grateful for him to take the second option.
Not, of course, suggesting that this is what happened. But if I were aboard that aircraft, I would be grateful he made that call.
Whether the Alitalia internal investigation agrees is a different matter, of course.