A Missouri airport worker was in such a rush to get to an employee barbecue that he drove a van across a runway — just seconds before a jetliner took off, according to a report.

The Envoy Air jet, an Embraer 145 with 50 passengers and three crew members aboard, narrowly missed the vehicle as it took off June 27 from Springfield-Branson National Airport, alarming video shows.

“I decided that due to the time limitations we would cross the runway in order to make it in time,” Jim Brown, who was driving two others to the cookout, wrote in a report obtained by the News-Leader.

“Just as I had cleared runway 20 the Ground Controller cleared me to cross runway 14, I repeated back cleared to cross runway 14 and proceeded at a high rate of speed (to minimize time on the taxiway and runway) down taxiway Uniform,” he wrote.

“It is generally my practice to look at both ends of any runway I cross, but I honestly cannot say for sure that I looked both ways or how far down the runway I might have looked,” he continued.

“About halfway across runway 14 the right front seat passenger said ‘Oh s—!’ I looked out the right passenger window to see the landing lights of an E145 (passenger jet) coming down the runway.

“The nose gear had already rotated, I do not know if the mains had left the ground or not. I accelerated across the runway and heard the aircraft overhead just as we were leaving the runway surface,” he wrote.

Brown said he asked if his passengers heard that the van had been cleared to cross Runway 14 — “and both stated that he did clear us to cross runway 14.”

He said he reported the close call to the airport operations supervisor.

Airport spokesman Kent Boyd said in a statement that “we are reviewing internal operating procedures that may have contributed to this incident, which is being investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board.

“The driver of the van is an airport employee. We cannot comment further because the incident is under investigation and in addition, we do not comment about personnel matters,” he added.