What to do about near midflight collisions?

Question

How can I as a passenger know if my flight was in a near midflight collision or if it just appears that two planes came perilously close to a collision? I was on an embraer rj145 looking out my window, when suddenly something came into my vision very quickly, and went directly underneath our aircraft. If I had to estimate I would say the aircraft was within a few hundred feet of us... but at 37,000 feet I think that's a little under what the tolerances should be.

now I don't believe we felt any draft off of the other craft, but I'm not sure that's unusual either given the speed we were traveling at, the aircraft would have to pass in front of us for us to feel anything.

I don't fly much, so perhaps this kind of close passing is normal? What do you think?

Answer 1

i think the radar was down when you were on an embraer 145, maybe it was NON-RADAR separation, which is usually not that perfect.

Answer 2

Most planes have TCAS which prevents mid air collisions

but just look out the window or try to get a seat near the cockpit so you can hear the TCAS alarm

Answer 3

Was the other aircraft a large type?  It probably looked a lot closer than it really was.  I have had passengers come up after a flight and ask about a plane and how close it was, when it had the required 1000 feet vertical separation.  I wouldn't worry about it.  If it was closer than that, I'm sure the controller was told and the pilots filed a report.  It's a pretty rare event to get too close at altitude.

Answer 4

I daresay you worry too much.  There are lots of other aircraft in the air around you when you fly.  The pilots see them, even if you don't.  They aren't as close as they appear to be.  Remember that 3D vision doesn't work beyond 30 metres away or so, and large aircraft can look very close even when they are quite a distance away.

Answer 5

In addition to the answers above, many people have trouble judging distances on the ground driving(ie. tailgating, driving to close to the vehicle in front of them) let alone in the air at 37,000 ft with no close background reference,(you are at almost 6.5 miles above the earth) I seriously doubt that the object you saw was as close as you think.

One of my favorite things to ask the flight attendants when they came into the cockpit was how far they thought the cloud formation (read thunderstorm) was from our aircraft? Most would guess 5-10 miles when in fact the cloud in question was 100-125 miles away as indicated on the radar!

Answer 6

The minimum vertical separation is 1,000 feet.  When you are up at altitude, planes look a lot closer than they really are.  In fact, if it weren't for instrumentation on board telling us that we have 1,000 feet of separation, visually it looks like the other plane might be at the same altitude until it gets closer.  Chances are that the other plane you saw was at least 1,000 feet below you.  And yes, that is quite normal now.

Most planes have a sophisticated collision avoidance system installed as a backup to Air Traffic Control instructions.  Near midairs are EXTREMELY rare.

Answer 7

Vertical separation at FL370 is 1000 feet, and a large aircraft passing directly under you would appear very close.  That's why  controllers utilize "merging target procedures" and advise flight crews when aircraft will pass in very close proximity with only minimum vertical separation.

In en route facilities (which control high altitude traffic such as you describe), separation is monitored by computer and an alert is sounded at the watch supervisor position, and a message is generated identifying the offending aircraft.  It is alway possible that an operational error occurred, but you would not be aware of that, as such incidents rarely make the news unless they are exceptionally close, or involve VIPs, etc. I have had the occasion to investigate several such reports received from the flying public over the years, and where I could identify the encounter, legal separation has always existed.

Answer 8

Hey, he missed ya right? Relax. Never did understand the term "near miss".

Answer 9

Usually commercial planes have TCAS (Traffic Collision Avoidance System) TCAS will try to tell us to avoid those mid air collision with radar, they'll tell the pilot to climb or descend to avoid mid air collision. However, old planes usually don't have this system. This system is inside the cockpit. If you're a passenger, You can't see the plan within more than a mile, It's almost impossible to do anything..