Not a topic I know anything about but it reminded me of dramatic videos of pilots with near misses with ultralights. This is obviously much slower than two commercial jets going opposite directions. But notice how quickly the ultralight appears out of nowhere in this video
Show it full screen and look carefully, it's visible as a tiny dot comes out of the distance, first visible at about 15 seconds in, but only once you know to look for it (or maybe if you have a pilot's eye and are looking at it??), and has passed the plane by 22 seconds, so all over within about 7 seconds.
So I wasn't surprise to read that with two jet planes, though larger, also faster, it could all be over in 10 seconds, and even the pilots of the plane might sometimes not see a jet passing at a safe distance in the opposite direction - as in Joel Berson's answer: Joel Berson's answer to Flying: Why have I not seen another plane in the sky while traveling on an airliner?
Show it full screen and look carefully, it's visible as a tiny dot comes out of the distance, first visible at about 15 seconds in, but only once you know to look for it (or maybe if you have a pilot's eye and are looking at it??), and has passed the plane by 22 seconds, so all over within about 7 seconds.
So I wasn't surprise to read that with two jet planes, though larger, also faster, it could all be over in 10 seconds, and even the pilots of the plane might sometimes not see a jet passing at a safe distance in the opposite direction - as in Joel Berson's answer: Joel Berson's answer to Flying: Why have I not seen another plane in the sky while traveling on an airliner?
About the Author
Robert Walker
Writer of articles on Mars and Space issues - Software Developer of Tune Smithy, Bounce Metronome etc.Studied at Wolfson College, Oxford
Lives in Isle of Mull
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