An American Airlines pilot was forced to 'slam on the brakes' after a truck came within feet of colliding with him on the taxiway at a North Carolina airport. 

The unidentified pilot was maneuvering his plane toward the runway at Charlotte Douglas International Airport on Wednesday when he suddenly had to stop the aircraft. 

Two vehicles drove past the plane, seemingly unaware that Flight 1197 had its taxi lights on. 

'They just went right in front of us,' the male pilot told the air traffic controller, according to CBS News. 'We nearly hit them, I had to slam on the brakes.' 

He informed the air traffic controller they had already begun moving before the car passed by. 

'Somebody's going to be notified right away, that was really bad,' he chastised. 

The air traffic controller confirmed he got the message and asked which direction the truck had been moving before locating it on an internal system. 

The early morning flight was heading from Charlotte to Washington, DC. It arrived in DC safely on time around 9am. 

Charlotte Douglas International Airport said it was 'aware of the reported incident.' 

'Safety and security are top priorities of CLT,' it said in a statement to CBS News. 

The incident is now under investigation by the airport as well as the Federal Aviation Administration. The Daily Mail has contacted American Airlines for comment.

The close call in Charlotte comes just weeks after an Air Canada flight crashed into a fire truck on the runway at LaGuardia Airport, killing the pilots. 

Surveillance footage of the runway showed the Air Canada Bombardier CRJ-900 aircraft landing around 11.30pm ET Sunday night, at the same moment a fire truck crossed its path on the tarmac.

The plane was traveling at approximately 150 mph when it struck the fire truck during heavy rainfall, and the footage showed a huge splash of water as the collision sent the truck careening across the runway.

It injured 41 people, including two people who were in the fire truck.  

Audio from air traffic control revealed workers pleaded for the fire truck to stop in the seconds before it crashed into the jet.

The fire truck had been given permission to cross the runway to deal with an unrelated issue on a separate plane, where a pilot reported that an 'odor' was filling the aircraft that left 'flight attendants feeling ill,' officials said.

As the fire truck raced to the other aircraft, air traffic controllers appeared to realize it was on a collision course with the Air Canada jet seconds before impact, as one said in the audio: 'Truck One, stop, stop, stop!'

America's most dangerous airports have been exposed by federal officials, with dozens of high-risk runway 'hot spots' flagged across the country.

Data from the FAA shows 291 locations within US airports where the risk of runway incursions, near-collisions and taxiing errors are significantly elevated.

The problem is especially acute in California, where the FAA's latest report identifies 34 airports with more than 80 runway hot spots.

It warns that complex layouts at San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego's main airports increase the risk of pilot error, confusion and potential accidents.

At Phoenix Sky Harbor in Arizona, crews have mistaken taxiways for departure runways.

Other major hubs flagged by officials include Seattle-Tacoma, Harry Reid International in Las Vegas, Salt Lake City International and Albuquerque International Sunport, where wrong-runway departures, misalignment risks and complex layouts have all been highlighted.