As you can see in the video above, about 18 seconds after we began rolling down JFK’s runway 22R, the aircraft self-aborted, bringing us from more than 100 mph to a loud, screeching halt in roughly 15 seconds. Qatar’s Chief Commercial Officer, the highest ranking executive on the flight, came over to reassure us, explaining that an “indicator” was responsible for the abrupt abort. As I understand it, for some reason the A350 decided that our 11,000-foot runway was too short to support the takeoff, and the plane applied the brakes at full force — all on its own. I was told that we would be taxiing to a different (less glitchy) runway, and would attempt another takeoff there. If that failed, we would be allowed to disembark. In other words, we were going to be taking off again whether we wanted to or not. (I imagine much of the nearly 2 hours between takeoffs was spent deciding what to do next — even though a few passengers wanted to get off the plane, Qatar opted to ignore that request, instead opting to save face after a rather embarrassing start to its first flight from the US.)