The very badly shot photo on the left (taken on an iPhone) shows a queue of aircraft waiting behind QF108 at New York’s JFK airport on a Thursday night. No explanation for the backlog of flights was given, but leaving the gate to T/O took just short of an hour.
Our Qantas 747-400 (QF108) also had to brake heavily after being given clearance to enter the runway then getting amended instructions from ATC to hold short when ATC on the Eastern side of the airport experienced technical issues – this according to the captain’s announcement. It’s amazing how quickly those huge aircraft can actually come to a complete standstill when the pilots stand on the brakes. That must have generated some heat.