Narrative:

We were cleared to line up and wait behind landing traffic on runway 28 for our night time departure. After a normal delay; during which the landing aircraft disappeared from view; we were cleared for takeoff. As we rolled down the runway I became suspicious that the lights we believed were the runway edge lights were in fact the lights of another aircraft. At about 130 knots I was reasonably certain the lights were in fact a second aircraft; parked or taxing slowly; at the end of the runway. The clues to my analysis were a shift in the position of two of the lights relative to the other edge lights; and the fact that I did not see an aircraft on the parallel taxiway. Runway 28 is over 13;000 feet long; we would normally rotate well in advance of taxiway bb; and be airborne before reaching the 10;000 foot point of the runway. Accordingly; I realized that a high-speed abort within 10 to 15 knots of V1 was not an option; and that we would clear the aircraft by a significant margin; if indeed another aircraft was even at the end of the runway. As my first officer rotated; and we became airborne; I looked downward and could see an aircraft apparently parked on the end of the runway. After attaining a safe altitude I returned to the tower frequency; while the first officer monitored the departure frequency. I first confirmed we had in fact been cleared for takeoff. I next inquired whether there was an aircraft on the end of the runway. The control tower clearly did not believe there was another aircraft on the runway; but then queried the aircraft in question. They replied to the tower to apologize to us. [Two other flights] confirmed the aircraft was in fact on the end of the runway during our takeoff from runway 28.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Air Carrier flight crew reports being cleared for a night takeoff at SBGL then noticing an aircraft at the far end of the runway just prior to V1. The Captain elects to continue the takeoff and easily clears the other aircraft. The Tower Controller was speaking Portuguese to the local pilots and English to this U.S. crew.

Narrative: We were cleared to line up and wait behind landing traffic on Runway 28 for our night time departure. After a normal delay; during which the landing aircraft disappeared from view; we were cleared for takeoff. As we rolled down the runway I became suspicious that the lights we believed were the runway edge lights were in fact the lights of another aircraft. At about 130 knots I was reasonably certain the lights were in fact a second aircraft; parked or taxing slowly; at the end of the runway. The clues to my analysis were a shift in the position of two of the lights relative to the other edge lights; and the fact that I did not see an aircraft on the parallel taxiway. Runway 28 is over 13;000 feet long; we would normally rotate well in advance of Taxiway BB; and be airborne before reaching the 10;000 foot point of the runway. Accordingly; I realized that a high-speed abort within 10 to 15 knots of V1 was not an option; and that we would clear the aircraft by a significant margin; if indeed another aircraft was even at the end of the runway. As my First Officer rotated; and we became airborne; I looked downward and could see an aircraft apparently parked on the end of the runway. After attaining a safe altitude I returned to the Tower frequency; while the First Officer monitored the departure frequency. I first confirmed we had in fact been cleared for takeoff. I next inquired whether there was an aircraft on the end of the runway. The Control Tower clearly did not believe there was another aircraft on the runway; but then queried the aircraft in question. They replied to the Tower to apologize to us. [Two other flights] confirmed the aircraft was in fact on the end of the runway during our takeoff from Runway 28.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 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.