Close call

[koputai]

Here's what happens when Qantas QF631 (16:50 Bris-Melb) is running late, and Virgin DJ332 (17:10 Bris-Melb) is on time.
I saw these two coming up from the horizon almost next to each other, very close. As they got over our place I thought it might make a good photo, so dashed inside and grabbed the little Sony. Imagine my suprise when the Virgin aircraft turned across the QF flight! After another two miles, the Qantas plane turned on to a parallel path to the Virgin one.
They probably had 500 feet of vertical separation, but it was quite a thing to see.

Cheers,
Jason.


42379 42380

[Dennis]

Wow - I wonder if the aircrew knew of this encounter! Great photos!

Cheers

Dennis

[RB]

:eyepop: Crickey.

Great catch Jason !

[skwinty]

Good picture Jason,
I am sure the TCAS (Traffic Collision Avoidance System) on board both aircraft calculated their individual trajectories and showed the pilots that there was no danger involved.
Also , to determine the separation of the planes from the ground is very difficult. Never the less your timing was impeccable:eyepop:
ps how did you know it was qantas and virgin?

[koputai]

Thanks guys.


Indeed, but I had watched them through the bino's from about 30-35 degrees elevation, so could see them fairly well head on. They are at full cruising altitude overhead, so yes, very difficult if you're looking straight up.
They also rarely make a sound, so you have to see them coming, the vapour trails helped me pick them up earlier than usual yesterday.


[/quote]
You can see the paint schemes easily through the bino's. For the flight numbers and times, I checked the airline timetables.

Cheers,
Jason.

[Dennis]

Wasn’t there a tragic aircraft crash involving a French flight, where the pilot deferred to TCAS rather than his own judgement and the airplane hit a mountain?

And then wasn’t there a mid-air collision involving German/Russian aircraft, when TCAS was indicating the need to dive but the pilot “felt” the correct decision would be to climb based on compromised ATC input, and the aircraft collided?

Dammed if you do; dammed if you don’t.

Cheers

Dennis

[Matty P]

A great capture Jason.

It sure does look close.

:thumbsup:

[leon]

That is an awesome shot Jason, I have never seen anything like it before.

Leon

[Geoff-]

Yep, pops up on nat geo channel now and then. They since amended the rule so the pilots always must obey TCAS, and ignore ATC. The problem in that case was that the "russian" pilot was told to dive, by TCAS, and did. The "german" pilot was told to climb by TCAS but ATC told him to dive, and he obeyed ATC. Trusting TCAS would have saved many lives.

[ving]

any wonder cheryl is afraid of flying!@