[Blueflag]

Dirk-- Picture in your mind the wake of a boat. The farther behind the boat, the wider the wake is. Same for wing vortices. They also tend to sink, and the wind was blowing towards the SE. All of this would indicate it is possible that 587 could encounter the wake of the JAL FLT 47.

Having stated that, let me state I do not understand how wake turbulence could cause an A300 to disassemble itself in the air.

[eno_]

A mile and a half is a long way compared with, say 20 feet, which is how far away the Chinese fighter was off the wing of our electronic surveillance plane when it got sucked into turbulence, got out of control, had a midair collision and crashed. The surveillance plane, despite having its nose taken off, a bent propeller, etc. made it to a landing. Gotta believe running into a plane is worse than running into a plane's wake.