I was a passenger in a rushed then aborted takeoff in a VC-10 one dark night out of (nearly) Dulles, bound for Belize. A bit of a c**k-up all round, from what I learned later from a Phanton pilot Sqn Ldr who had been given the "benefit" of the jump seat. Crew turned up late (they had put us on the aircraft once then taken us off again in those awful mobile lounge things) then failed to properly configure the aircraft for takeoff. We had apparently very nearly gone off the end of the runway, to the extent that they couldn't get a tow truck in front of the nose gear. It became an even longer dark night.
