Hi there, i know next to nothing about flight and aviation.
On a recent flight to Rhodes, Greece (my first and last flight) i was sitting in my window seat on what i believe was an a350 or something. Anyway, i saw out the window a flash, when i looked out there was a plane flying at phenomenal speed away from our plane, i could see the back end of the plane clearly, with the white trails coming out, it crossed our path.
It was about 50 feet above out plane, but it was on the same path, so if it had been 50 feet lower we surely would have collided. The worst thing is all my holiday buddys think im mad, that i didnt see it, i yelled woooooh, as it happened. And people down front of the plane seemed to of noticed something, but the captain did not announce anything and there was nothing on the ground, so i started to think i imagined it.
I dont think i imagined it as it was something ive never seen before and it was very strage to look at a plane moving at a combined speed of around 800 miles per hour away from our plane, i mean it was out of sight in only about 8 seconds.
Is this normal, do some pilots do it on purpose for some kind of rush, can i call the airport and get the truth?
By: PMN - 17th February 2009 at 12:02
Yeah and it said…….
“If you can read this, you’re too close”
That was almost witty, Spalds!
…Almost…
WAC
By: A Spalding - 17th February 2009 at 11:27
i could see red writing on the back end of it,
Yeah and it said…….
“If you can read this, you’re too close”
By: symon - 17th February 2009 at 00:49
Was everyone else on the plane as startled as you were? Were there screams of terror from the people on the other side of your plane that would have seen the other plane ‘zooming’ straight for you?
The media are quite quick to pick up on ‘near misses’ and embellish the ‘incidents’. Perhaps if it were more serious than you thought it were; we would have heard about it in the press. Maybe they still will….
By: matthewfever - 17th February 2009 at 00:44
basically the same reaction i got from my friend, but i know what i saw, it was a plane, a big plane, very close above us, i could see red writing on the back end of it, and when i say it crossed our path what i mean is if you had seen it from below it would have been an x in the sky. but we crossed at the center point, and then i could see out the window towards the back of the plane it zooming away.
By: steve rowell - 16th February 2009 at 22:57
And, no, pilots don’t play chicken, or engage in dangerous manoevers for “the rush” of it. They aren’t suicidal, nor do they plan on killing their passengers, or even loosing their license over such a stunt.
By: frankvw - 16th February 2009 at 14:57
Well, first, let me welcome you to the forums.
While I don’t want to cast doubt on what you saw, I pretty much doubt that it happened the way it looked like.
First, it is nearly impossible to estimate how close you are to another plane, for the simple reason that you don’t have “external” visual cues, like a tree, a house, … you’d see when driving a car.
It must not have been on the same path, as you describe, as your plane, or you couldn’t have seen it (remember you don’t have forward visibility as a passenger)
What you most likely noticed was the shadow that was cast by this plane, that being the “flash”
And, no, pilots don’t play chicken, or engage in dangerous manoevers for “the rush” of it. They aren’t suicidal, nor do they plan on killing their passengers, or even loosing their license over such a stunt.
And in any case, air traffic control wouldn’t have let the plane get into a dangerous situation.
And to complement PMN’s post: the Airbus 350 is just on the drawing board as of now, so it must have been something else, but that’s not relevant in this case.
So, be assured you were safe at all times, and that shouldn’t put you off of flying. A first flight is always impressive, but if you fly more, you’ll get used to it.
By: PMN - 16th February 2009 at 14:55
The aircraft you saw, if you did indeed see it would have been at least 1000 feet from yours and it would in no way have almost been a collision.
And it definitely wasn’t an A350. 😉
Paul
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February 16, 2009 at 2:26 pm