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.
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
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!
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)
He was at 35,000. This author is one big drama queen!
Poor fellow had got his pilot's license when he was 13, and became one of the first generation of jet pilots, cutting his teeth on P-80s and driving Sabers in Korea. Later in life he was subject to black outs, and unceremoniously had his driver's license taken from him. He died peacefully of a stroke in his sleep one night.
For example, if you observed the airplane for 1 second, and your view was 60 degrees, the minimum distance to the airplane was 0.333 miles, or 1758 feet.
Relax, no big deal, I often see airliners zipping by in the opposite direction when I fly. There are highways in the sky just like the ones on the surface. If you stare out the window long enough you’re bound to spot a plane going the other way.
“I gasped and my heart jumped. I looked around and back, nobody seemed to have even noticed. My wife and the guy in the seat next to her looked at me like I was crazy!”
LOL!
I can relate having flown just a few weeks ago. I freaked out seeing a speck of a plane that must have been miles away, only to see a plane full of people enjoying the flight. Heck even the babies were zen compared to me. i also had a hard time dealing with turbulence, even though it is a completely normal part of flying. I’m sure the plane was at a safe distance. It is really hard to run into another plane, there are just too many things that would have to go wrong.
The only thing that helped me was listening to the audio of the cockpit and ground control. If they were cool, then I had nothing to worry about.
Visually, if the plane fit within your window, probably not too close. If only half plane fit in your window, it getting close
I think close enough to read the numbers is too close. These weren’t that close and the pilot took evasive action; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7DygPsJ_sA#t=223
I think they try to maintain 5 miles horizontal separation. I doubt if you could see 5 miles. Certainly not and have the plane be so large it was disconcerting.