airplane near miss!

[estowife]

So When flying back from Orlando a couple of months ago, Our airplane was involved in what I can only describe as a near miss, I was so shocked, but only presumed all pilots were in control & knew of eachothers proximity. It has bothered me ever since & I kick myself for not raising it with the airline immediately.
I was wondering if anybody can shed any light on it...

The details are as follows

Thursday April 11th Orlando to Manchester with Thomas Cook, 6:20pm departure. Pretty sure the pilots name was Steve Davis

We were just coming over Ireland when DD looked out of her window & said 'mum look at that plane over there'. I wasn't alarmed at this point, there was a plane some distance away which seemed to be travelling paralell with us. We watched it for some time as we seemed to be heading in the same direction, at the same height etc & it was just along side us but plenty far enough away.

The longer we watched, the more I realised this other plane (virgin atlantic) was not travelling in the same direction as us, our paths were converging, yes our paths were going to cross & it appeared we were travelling at the same altitude

We watched & watched & I just kept repeating to myself, surely not. I wondered if our pilot had seen it as he was obviously at the front of the plane & we were sat quite near the back & so the Virgin plane was possibly not in his field of vision.

I was expecting our plane to take a sudden drop in altitude to avoid collision, but it didn't. I wondered if the neighbouring plane was going to either pull up or down but it didn't noticably do anything!

So then came the moment of crossing the VA plane went directly over the top of us lighting up the entire cabin as the sun bounced off of it as it crossed over us left to right. I was terrified that our tail fin would hit the underside. Fortunately NOTHING happened!

I just can't believe that that was an intentional occurrence. Was everybody oblivious & why was more action not taken...

So just wondering if anybody was on the plane & saw the same thing or if there are any experts with any potential explanations

Thanks

[Morganza]

Flight paths are closely monitored by more than one of the flight crew, as well as ground ATCs at all time. It would all have been under control.

[estowife]

yes that would have been my assumption, just wondered if it had been missed it was so close!

[Omega1]

There has to be a minimum of 1000 feet vertical separation between aircraft when passing over each other (or a lateral distance of 5 nautical miles).
1000ft doesn’t look very far and can be deceptively close when viewing a large aircraft. Probably nothing to be concerned about.

[Melvin Pearce]

On our flight to Orlando with British Airways in February, I went to the toilets at the back and while waiting I looked out of the door window by the toilets and below us slightly to the left was another plane on the same course about 1,000 ft below us. I wish I had my phone or camera with me as it would have made a lovely photo as the sky was so blue. Wasn't a airline I know, as we were off the USA coast.

If you are worried, maybe contact Thomas Cook or the CAA and ask them if there was a near miss with your flight that day.

Hope it doesn't put you off flying. Flying is the safes form of transport.

Lesley and Melvin

[sully301]

every aircraft has a system that warns pilots if they are too close and it tells them to take action. As someone above said 1000ft does look close but it actually is plenty of room.

[Minnie18]

I wouldn't think it was anything to worry about. We have RAF flights going over our house/area sometimes and the things they do is amazing.

Saying that as a nervous flyer I would have been in a state.

[RachaelC]

I found this article that may help reassure you

telegraph/travel/t...iation-planes/

[estowife]

Originally Posted by RachaelC

I found this article that may help reassure you

telegraph/travel/t...iation-planes/

See more...

Thats Brilliant thankyou

[PPM]

I wish I’d been on your plane. I’d love to see another plane being “ close” to ours. Great camera opportunity

There’s no danger of collision, and the pilot would probably not see it as they rarely look out, using instruments to detect close by aircraft.