Narrative:

Contacted ground control and was cleared to taxi via charlie to runway 25R. There were no other aircraft in sight on either taxiway C or B. Taxi speed was about 20 KTS. At about taxiway C2 I checked the PA receiver to hear the progress of the PA. It was near the end of the english portion. I slowed the aircraft to 11 KTS to allow the tape to finish prior to the hold short line. At about taxiway right we switched up tower frequency. Within seconds we heard a transmission from tower asking if we were up and saying; 'oh by the way air carrier Y is going ahead of you.' we immediately began looking around for another aircraft possibly down field making an intersection takeoff. As I was turning for the hold short line I saw an air carrier Y coming down taxiway B at about 30 or 40 KTS. I immediately braked and watched the other aircraft's wing pass right in front of us. Had we not seen this aircraft and pulled up to the hold short line; there is no doubt in my mind that the other aircraft could not have stopped in time to avoid a collision. The most startling thing about this event was that we had heard no transmissions on ground to even indicate that there was another aircraft within 4;000 ft of us. Had we not switched up tower and heard the transmission about the other aircraft going ahead of us we would have thought we were all alone on the taxiway and had no idea that there was another aircraft closing us at 30 to 40 KTS. I am speculating the other aircraft switched up tower before the prescribed time and asked tower for clearance to taxi on taxiway B so they could go ahead of us. They were obviously cleared for takeoff before we were even up tower frequency. There are many factors contributing to this near miss. Ground control gave us no indication that there was another aircraft overtaking us at a high rate of speed heading for the same spot as us. The other air carrier switched to tower frequency much earlier than the prescribed time. Tower used exceptionally poor judgment clearing the other aircraft to takeoff when they weren't in contact with us.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An air carrier flight crew reported that a very high speed taxiing aircraft seemingly came out of no where and was cleared for takeoff; in the process passing very close in front of the reporter's aircraft.

Narrative: Contacted Ground Control and was cleared to taxi via Charlie to Runway 25R. There were no other aircraft in sight on either Taxiway C or B. Taxi speed was about 20 KTS. At about Taxiway C2 I checked the PA receiver to hear the progress of the PA. It was near the end of the English portion. I slowed the aircraft to 11 KTS to allow the tape to finish prior to the hold short line. At about Taxiway R we switched up Tower frequency. Within seconds we heard a transmission from Tower asking if we were up and saying; 'Oh by the way Air Carrier Y is going ahead of you.' We immediately began looking around for another aircraft possibly down field making an intersection takeoff. As I was turning for the hold short line I saw an Air Carrier Y coming down Taxiway B at about 30 or 40 KTS. I immediately braked and watched the other aircraft's wing pass right in front of us. Had we not seen this aircraft and pulled up to the hold short line; there is no doubt in my mind that the other aircraft could not have stopped in time to avoid a collision. The most startling thing about this event was that we had heard no transmissions on ground to even indicate that there was another aircraft within 4;000 FT of us. Had we not switched up Tower and heard the transmission about the other aircraft going ahead of us we would have thought we were all alone on the taxiway and had no idea that there was another aircraft closing us at 30 to 40 KTS. I am speculating the other aircraft switched up Tower before the prescribed time and asked Tower for clearance to taxi on Taxiway B so they could go ahead of us. They were obviously cleared for takeoff before we were even up Tower frequency. There are many factors contributing to this near miss. Ground Control gave us no indication that there was another aircraft overtaking us at a high rate of speed heading for the same spot as us. The other Air Carrier switched to Tower frequency much earlier than the prescribed time. Tower used exceptionally poor judgment clearing the other aircraft to takeoff when they weren't in contact with us.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.