Originally Posted by
Hoi polloi
Whoa, could've been a horrible situation. While it certainly seems the AA pilots were in the wrong, it was a clear day... were the Delta pilots not looking down the runway as they accelerated? It's kind of hard to miss a 777 rolling across the runway in front of you. Perhaps they were already aborting the takeoff when ATC made the call?
Regardless, glad everyone is safe (except for the poor brakes/wheels on the Delta plane).
It was 845
PM, so you are dealing with the impact of night vision and the transition from looking inside the cockpit and then looking outside, where all you see initially is the myriad number of flashing lights of other aircraft amongst the lights of the taxiways and runways and other lights of the airport environment. Gradually as your night vision improves you can resolve better other images such as individual aircraft with the light on the aircraft.
You may have noticed that aircraft do not turn on their "lights" until right at takeoff so as not to ruin the night vision of other pilots while everyone is taxing. This incident is part of why they do that.