Are you supposed to see other planes when flying?

Question

I was flying US Air the other day and i saw a southwest airplane zip by. ??????????? I thought that was very wierd since i had never seen one in flight before and so close.

Answer 1

Its normal to see other aircraft. I have not once had a flight and not seen other aircraft out the window.

I was flying GLA-ALC last week and seen 7 other aircraft. When I flew GLA-MCO we were flying along side a Delta 767 for 3 hours non-stop.

Answer 2

they can fly at 500 to 1000 feet about the other planes,  its called the reduced vertical separation minimum

Answer 3

Yeah, I've seen a couple like this.  There are common routes that commercial carriers use, so it's likely that you will see other planes.  The rules that they follow require that they maintain a separation both vertically and horizontally.  If one is travelling east, for example, he has to be at a different altitude than one travelling west.  So even if they manage to be at the exact latitude and longitude at the same time, they still should miss each other.

Answer 4

yes. we saw a plane going the oposite way to us and it was there for like half a second

Answer 5

You can but they are normally really far apart.

Answer 6

Yes this normal. I flew over Europe a while ago and had 3 other planes insight at the same time. The law states you need 10 mile seperation on the same level and 1000ft on diffrent levels. So it is possable that you travel only 1000ft over another aircraft.

Answer 7

d**n thats weird cause they shouldnt be near each other

pretty weird i would say that wasnt a good thing