KLM 777 on KL701 to Buenos Aires Rejects Takeoff at Amsterdam After a Loud Engine Bang

KLM flight KL701, a Boeing 777-200 registered PH-BQB, rejected its takeoff at Amsterdam Schiphol on the evening of November 13, 2026, after the crew heard a loud bang as the engines spooled up. The jet was bound for Buenos Aires Ezeiza, with an onward leg to Santiago, Chile.

KLM had not published a statement on the event in its newsroom at the time of writing. The whole rotation was cancelled, and the aircraft was still on the ground in Amsterdam the next day.

What happened on the runway

The sequence was first reported by The Aviation Herald. It says the crew lined up on runway 24, were cleared for takeoff and heard the bang while the engines were accelerating, at which point they rejected the takeoff.

The jet left the runway via taxiway B and taxied back to the apron. The tower cancelled the takeoff clearance of the next departure, and a runway inspection found no debris, according to the same report.

Which engine made the noise was not clear on the night. The Aviation Herald reports that the crew told passengers the bang came from the right-hand side, while telling the tower they thought it was the left, adding they were not very sure.

Airport fire services reported one engine running about 100 degrees Celsius hotter than normal, the outlet says. The 777 is powered by two GE90 engines, and no cause for the bang has been published.

Buenos Aires and Santiago flights cancelled

KL701 was scheduled to leave at 20:50 UTC (9:50 p.m. in Amsterdam), and Flightradar24’s history for PH-BQB, a Boeing 777-200ER, shows the flight never departed. KLM flies the route as a triangle: Amsterdam to Buenos Aires, then Buenos Aires to Santiago, with KL702 returning the same way.

Flightradar24 lists all three onward sectors for November 14 as cancelled: KL701 from Buenos Aires to Santiago, and KL702 from Santiago to Buenos Aires and on to Amsterdam. The cancellation reached passengers waiting in Santiago and Buenos Aires as well as those at Schiphol.

The next evening’s KL701 was assigned another 777-200, PH-BQL, according to the same tracking data. The Aviation Herald reported PH-BQB still on the ground about 19 hours after the rejected takeoff.

Why crews stop on the runway

A rejected takeoff is a planned maneuver, not an improvisation. Every takeoff is planned around a decision speed, V1, which US regulations define as the maximum speed at which the pilot must take the first action to stop the airplane within the accelerate-stop distance.

Below that speed, a crew that sees or hears something wrong can close the thrust levers and brake within the distance the takeoff was planned for. Past V1, that stopping distance is no longer assured.

The Aviation Herald does not give the speed at which KL701 stopped. Its account places the bang during the engines’ spool-up.

A crew has seconds to decide, often before it knows what the noise was, and in KL701’s case it could not say for sure which engine had banged. An engine found running hot afterward points to something worth a closer look, but it does not by itself identify a cause.

Not the first GE90 stop at Schiphol this year

KLM had a similar event in March. On March 23, 2026, flight KL843 to Bangkok, a 777-300ER registered PH-BVP, rejected its takeoff at low speed on runway 18L after the tower heard two dull bangs.

The crew later reported that the right-hand GE90 had suffered a seizure and shut it down, according to AeroInside. That aircraft was still on the ground at Amsterdam Schiphol about 28 hours later.

The two events involve different aircraft and different 777 variants, and nothing published links them. In September, a different kind of problem, the KL735 power bank fire, sent a KLM 777 back to Schiphol.

For now, the open questions are which engine banged, what KLM’s inspection finds, and when PH-BQB returns to service.