Posted on 09/20/2014 3:25:22 PM PDT by rlmorel
Cruising at 37,00 feet eastbound, surfing the Internet, I paused for a second and looked out the window and saw another airliner flash by going 180 degrees in the opposite direction.
I readily admit I am no good at estimating relative distance in the air, I have never seen another plane pass this close...ever.
I could have read the tail number, it was that close, but I was so startled I didn't even register the kind of plane it was, though it was white with an engine under each wing.
Here is where it happened, at 1750 EST:
The only time I have seen an airplane that close while in an airliner was as I came in to land and passed over or by it as it was taxiing off to the side. I could clearly make out each window, and if I had not been so startled, I think I could have actually seen people inside if I had tried.
And the fact that we were going 180 degrees in the opposite direction with a likely closing speed of nearly 1200 mph, makes it even more disconcerting.
We had just entered turbulence, and everyone had to return to their seats and buckle in, so I wonder if planes were being re-routed to avoid the turbulence, and perhaps they knew exactly what they were doing, but...I simply cannot imagine two airliners head on sharing that same space at that altitude going head on to each other.
Are there any Freeper airline pilots out there who can shed any light on this?
Did you crash?
Then no problem.
Oh, good God.
Funny, but no. It was a few hundred yards (maybe 200-300) off our port side and several hundred feet below us.
Whoa! Bro, what an opening paragraph to a potential book...........
My heart flutters with the excitement you have just instilled.....
the file you meant to display in your message... cant be found according to Dropboz
Thanks for the explanation. From your handle, you probably understand way better than me how fast things happen head on at that closing speed, and if it isn’t a big deal, then...well...I guess it ain’t.
But I had never seen that with my own eyes before.
sorry Its displaying now....
it didnt immediately display so i asked my browser to open the file in another window. that is when the error message appeared
LOL...DropBox is having trouble synching...it reminds me of that comedy routine someone did one time about griping about slow Internet service while flying in a pressurized tube at 37,000 feet at 550 mph...
It USED TO BE, that if any approaching aircraft was larger than your thumbnail, it was too stinking close.
Nowadays, with all the stories that we, the public, are ‘allowed’ to know about, I have no idea.
I just hope that you did NOT need a laundry change, once you landed!
Okay, THAT’S funny...
Distances are difficult to judge in the air. 300 yards is nearly the 1000' vertical separation, so you're pretty good at this.
The other aircraft should have been 2000 feet above or below your aircraft.
(IIRC - it's been 32years since I was Pilot-In-Command (PIC) and never at 37,000 feet, Flight Level (FL) 370)
Danger Danger,,, Pilot Out Of Control!!
He was at 35,000. This author is one big drama queen!
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