Near Miss over London

[rack'm]

<img src="http://static.sky.com/images/pictures/1374906.jpg">

Disaster seemed certain when a photographer took these photos over London.

The cameraman took the pictures of an Airbus A300 belonging to transport firm DHL, which seemed to narrowly avoid flying into the rear of a Japan Airlines Boeing 777.

The photographer was in the crowd attending West Ham's home FA Cup match at Upton Park stadium on Saturday.

But the Civil Aviation Authority says the incident was an optical illusion and not as dangerous as it appeared from below.

A spokesman said: 'It is impossible to tell from the ground how close aircraft are in the air.'

For a mid-air incident to be classed a near miss, the planes must be within three nautical miles horizontally or 1,000ft vertically of each other.

A DHL spokesman said the company took safety 'extremely seriously' and had investigated the claims.

He said: 'In this instance a proper distance between the two planes was maintained at all times.'

Experts say the blue skies and sunshine added to the optical illusion as the conditions distorted the perspective of those watching below.

 

[bcp]

Disaster seemed certain when a photographer took these photos over London.

The cameraman took the pictures of an Airbus A300 belonging to transport firm DHL, which seemed to narrowly avoid flying into the rear of a Japan Airlines Boeing 777.

The photographer was in the crowd attending West Ham's home FA Cup match at Upton Park stadium on Saturday.

But the Civil Aviation Authority says the incident was an optical illusion and not as dangerous as it appeared from below.

A spokesman said: 'It is impossible to tell from the ground how close aircraft are in the air.'

For a mid-air incident to be classed a near miss, the planes must be within three nautical miles horizontally or 1,000ft vertically of each other.

A DHL spokesman said the company took safety 'extremely seriously' and had investigated the claims.

He said: 'In this instance a proper distance between the two planes was maintained at all times.'

Experts say the blue skies and sunshine added to the optical illusion as the conditions distorted the perspective of those watching below.

DHL spokesman said that both planes would be back in service after a routine sanitizing of the seats after the never in danger passengers #### themselves in preperation for the crash.

fixed to add the rest of the article.

 

[Ken King]

Near miss? Hell any time it's a miss that has to be good, why not call them what they are, near hits.

 

[Mikeinsmd]

Do y'all think there's 1000' seperating them vertically? Optical illusion or not, that looks DAMN close.

 

[BuddyLee]

Shirley you can't be serious.

Yes I am, and don't call me Shirley.

 

[MMDad]

Do y'all think there's 1000' seperating them vertically? Optical illusion or not, that looks DAMN close.

Little plane on the bottom, big plane on top. Long focal length lens. Horizontal offset. Probably much more than 1000'.

 

[Fuzzy Bean]

Little plane on the bottom, big plane on top. Long focal length lens. Horizontal offset. Probably much more than 1000'.

Yea, Snopes said up to 2.5 miles.

 

[dustin]

I see a UFO in the background!







..oh wait that was just a booger on my screen.

 

[itsbob]

If you know the length of both panes, you can derive the distance to both planes. Looking at the picture with no data, I'd say they were REALLY close.. working with ATC guys I've heard some eye opening stories. Radar is far from perfect..

 

[Toxick]

Near miss? Hell any time it's a miss that has to be good, why not call them what they are, near hits.

Very interesting.


I suppose a "Near Miss" is usually called a "crash".

 

[MMDad]

If you know the length of both panes, you can derive the distance to both planes. Looking at the picture with no data, I'd say they were REALLY close.. working with ATC guys I've heard some eye opening stories. Radar is far from perfect..

Bob, was that you on your bike yesterday, 1:20, riding past 8115? I was headed the other way.

As for the separation, you would need to know things like the focal length of the camera (telephoto compresses distance) and viewing angle. Radar isn't perfect, but it's not usually the problem.

Since this was taken in Europe, I find it even harder to believe this was a near miss because of their collision avoidance requirements.

 

[itsbob]

At 4:01 a.m. ET next Thursday, the required vertical separation between planes flying in a range from 29,000 to 41,000 feet will decrease to 1,000 feet from the current 2,000. The required horizontal separation will remain unchanged at 5¾ miles.

And I bleieve they are more then 1000 feet apart Vertically, but 5 3/4, or 3 1/2 miles apart Horizontally?? I don't think so!

 

[itsbob]

Bob, was that you on your bike yesterday, 1:20, riding past 8115? I was headed the other way.

As for the separation, you would need to know things like the focal length of the camera (telephoto compresses distance) and viewing angle. Radar isn't perfect, but it's not usually the problem.

Since this was taken in Europe, I find it even harder to believe this was a near miss because of their collision avoidance requirements.

That was probably me, don't see many other bikes down around here. I was just coming back from a meeting at EMA. And if it was a Silver (Silvia) bike, it was me.. VERY few silver bikes on the road.

 

[MMDad]

At 4:01 a.m. ET next Thursday, the required vertical separation between planes flying in a range from 29,000 to 41,000 feet will decrease to 1,000 feet from the current 2,000. The required horizontal separation will remain unchanged at 5¾ miles.

And I bleieve they are more then 1000 feet apart Vertically, but 5 3/4, or 3 1/2 miles apart Horizontally?? I don't think so!

That was January 20 '05 in the U.S. No impact in Europe because they had implemented RVSM before us because they were ahead of us in the technology.