A Continental airplane had a very close call Tuesday morning at Bush Intercontinental Airport.

At the end of a 10-hour flight, there were a few scary seconds for flight 2.

"We lingered there for a few seconds," passenger Andy Kadin said. "Within a few more seconds, we were up again. Up and gone."

Some passengers were confused -- others were frightened.

"It's like, 'oh wow!' Everybody knows something is wrong; it is just a question of what is wrong," he said.

Moments after the plane was airborne again, the answer came from the cockpit.

"There was a plane on the runway in front of us that was supposed to turn off and didn't turn off in time," Kadin said.

Continental Airlines confirmed that flight 2 did have to abort its landing, but a spokesperson could not immediately provide details on how close that 767 may have come to the other plane or what that other plane was.

"I said to my daughter -- one of my daughter's was sitting next to me -- 'this is a runway incursion,'" Kadin said. "She was like, 'what?' 'This is a runway incursion. We were too close to somebody; somebody was too close to us.'"

The incident happened just hours after the release of a so-called secret NASA safety study. It found at least 1,266 incidents between 2001 and 2004 where aircraft came within 500 feet of each other. That number is much higher than previously thought or reported to the Federal Aviation Administration.

Continental Airlines said they are still investigating the incident. The Houston Airport System and the FAA did not immediately return phone calls to 11 News.