Near miss?

Inquitus · 19-01-2019 1:54am #1

I was flying on Ryanair from Bucharest today in a window seat on the left side of the plane, at about 13:55 Irish time about half way into the flight, another plane came from the south at the same altitude and turned East to avoid us as we flew west towards Dublin. I have never seen a plane so close at cruising altitude, I would estimate our separation was about 500m as I had a very clear view and could clearly see the plane pass very close by. Is there anywhere I can check to see if this constituted a near miss? It certainly looked dangerously close imo.

GBX · 19-01-2019 1:57am

Inquitus wrote: »

I was flying on Ryanair from Bucharest today in a window seat on the left side of the plane, at about 13:55 Irish time about half way into the flight, another plane came from the south at the same altitude and turned East to avoid us as we flew west towards Dublin. I have never seen a plane so close at cruising altitude, I would estimate our separation was about 500m as I had a very clear view and could clearly see the plane pass very close by. Is there anywhere I can check to see if this constituted a near miss? It certainly looked dangerously close imo.

If probably seemed close but in reality the systems used would have warned each aircraft they were close if they were actually within that proximity to each other. Also its harder to judge distance at altitude when you've only got clouds as reference points so in reality they were probably a lot further than 500m apart.

Inquitus · 19-01-2019 2:02am

GBX wrote: »

If probably seemed close but in reality the systems used would have warned each aircraft they were close if they were actually within that proximity to each other. Also its harder to judge distance at altitude when you've only got clouds as reference points so in reality they were probably a lot further than 500m apart.

I could have seen people through the windows but for the closing speed, it was really that close.

NIMAN · 19-01-2019 2:04am

Does FlightRadar24 not show this kind of data?

TheChizler · 19-01-2019 2:11am

There was another Ryanair flight on FR24 going NE to Berlin that passed under you by 1000 ft at 35,000 ft around then. Normal occurrence though.

faoiarvok · 19-01-2019 9:58am

Inquitus wrote: »

I was flying on Ryanair from Bucharest today in a window seat on the left side of the plane, at about 13:55 Irish time about half way into the flight, another plane came from the south at the same altitude and turned East to avoid us as we flew west towards Dublin. I have never seen a plane so close at cruising altitude, I would estimate our separation was about 500m as I had a very clear view and could clearly see the plane pass very close by. Is there anywhere I can check to see if this constituted a near miss? It certainly looked dangerously close imo.

You would not get that close at the same level without TCAS instructing the pilots to climb and descend. TCAS does not issue turns to avoid traffic.

The required vertical separation is 1000ft which is less than your estimate of 500m.

It almost certainly was not.

faoiarvok · 19-01-2019 10:17am

TheChizler wrote: »

There was another Ryanair flight on FR24 going NE to Berlin that passed under you by 1000 ft at 35,000 ft around then. Normal occurrence though.

FR2034 Toulouse to Berlin Schonefeld, 1000ft below.

It did take a turn as you converged, most likely as part of its planned route, because you had the required separation already.

Inquitus · 19-01-2019 1:09pm

Thanks for the answers, 1000ft is only 300m, I'd say the additional non vertical separation was even less, certainly the closest I have even seen 2 planes come together at 30,000+ ft. But all above board I see.

IngazZagni · 19-01-2019 2:09pm

Inquitus wrote: »

Thanks for the answers, 1000ft is only 300m, I'd say the additional non vertical separation was even less, certainly the closest I have even seen 2 planes come together at 30,000+ ft. But all above board I see.

Once the aircraft are 1000 feet apart vertically there is no horizontal distance separation requirement.
Happens thousands of times a day.

Try having an A380 flying 1000 feet below. Now that's a cool sight.

Candamir · 19-01-2019 2:13pm

IngazZagni wrote: »

Try having an A380 flying 1000 feet below. Now that's a cool sight.

An A380 1000ft above however, is not!!

http://m.aviationweek.com/business-aviation/german-challenger-totaled-after-a380-wake-turbulence

smurfjed · 19-01-2019 5:10pm

An A380 1000ft above however, is not!!

It most certainly is a cool sight until about 10-15 seconds later.

theguzman · 20-01-2019 10:28pm

Candamir wrote: »

An A380 1000ft above however, is not!!

http://m.aviationweek.com/business-aviation/german-challenger-totaled-after-a380-wake-turbulence

That was a seriously close call.

smurfjed · 21-01-2019 2:39am

I’m not too sure how much of the blame should go to the A380, the flight data recorder appears to show that the challenger pilot used the wrong foot to attempt to recover

Near miss?

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