Lufthansa 747 “Very Close To An Accident” In Miami As American Airlines 787 Turns Into Its Path

Published Nov 9, 2026, 4:33 AM EST A graduate in German, Jake has a passion for history and regional aviation, and enjoys sampling new carriers and aircraft. He has visited OEM facilities as far and wide as Bristol, Toulouse, and Seattle, and recently enjoyed the milestone of flying his 150th sector as a passenger. Based in Norfolk, UK. Last week, a Lufthansa Boeing 747-8 taxiing at Miami International Airport (MIA) had to make a sudden stop on its way to the runway after an American Airlines Boeing 787-8 turned into its path. The situation reportedly arose after the Dreamliner's crew failed to hold short of the taxiway to allow the 747 to continue its journey, with tense air traffic control transmissions of the situation being uploaded online. Ultimately, the quick thinking of the Lufthansa crew saw the German flag carrier and Star Alliance founding member's jumbo jet, which bears a special retro livery, come to a stop before a collision occurred. However, the incident highlights the human vulnerabilities of the modern air traffic control system, with controllers trusting that pilots follow their instructions but finding that this is not always the case. A Close Call On The Ground In Miami Credit: Michael Derrer Fuchs | Shutterstock Lufthansa flight LH463 is a daily scheduled service from Miami back to Lufthansa's main hub at Frankfurt Airport (FRA) in Germany. According to reporting by aeroTELEGRAPH, and as detailed in the air traffic control interactions covered by the video embedded below, its departure on November 5 was an eventful one. On the way to the runway, its pilots said they "had to make a full stop at full taxi speed." This, they told ATC in Miami, was because an American Airlines Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner that had just arrived from Philadelphia (PHL) as AA1155 turned into their path. The Lufthansa crew expressed their displeasure, saying that they would file a report, as "that was very close to an accident in the making." ATC, meanwhile, lamented the fact that the American 787 had "made every wrong turn possible already." Simple Flying has reached out to Miami International Airport for futher information on this incident. We will update our coverage upon receiving a statement from the airport. Lufthansa's 747 Ultimately Departed Almost An Hour Late Credit: Evan El-Amin | Shutterstock Air traffic control at major international airports can be busy and, from the outside looking in, confusing. However, this seems to be a fairly open-and-shut case in terms of the American Airlines crew being in the wrong. After all, as ATC in Miami told Lufthansa's 747, "they were supposed to hold short of [taxiway] Yankee." In any case, while the 747 did depart late, this was not solely due to the close call. According to Flightradar24, LH463's scheduled departure time from Miami is 4:40 PM. However, on November 5, the site's tracking data shows that it did not push back until closer to 5:00 PM, and then faced a long taxi to the other end of Miami's southern runway. Meanwhile, American Airlines flight AA1155 landed at 5:15 PM, operated by a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner that bore the registration N803AL. Looking at the subsequent taxi paths of the two flights side by side, we can see that the American 787 made a right turn in front of the 747 in order to cross its path on its way to the gate close to where runways 09/27 and 12/30 intersect at around 5:18 PM. Having had to pause, Lufthansa's 747 eventually took off 53 minutes late at 5:33 PM, landing in Frankfurt 39 minutes behind schedule at 8:24 AM the next day. American Airlines' Domestic Dreamliner Deployment Credit: kamilpetran | Shutterstock Given the Boeing 787 Dreamliner's renowned status as a modern long-haul widebody twinjet, it might come as something of a surprise to see American Airlines deploying the 787-8 model on a three-hour hop down the East Coast between Philadelphia and Miami. However, this appears to be a regular occurrence on American flight AA1155, with the type having been used on this rotation since November 1. With that being said, the Dreamliner plays a minimal role when it comes to American's overall operations on this domestic route. According to scheduling data from Cirium, an aviation analytics company, the carrier flies nine or even ten times a day from Philadelphia to Miami, with the 787 only accounting for one of these rotations. Airbus A321-200s, A321neos, Boeing 737-800s, and 737 MAX 8s serve the rest.