Planes In Near Miss Over London

Old Croc · January 30, 2006

Planes 'seen in close encounter'

The planes appear to be flying extremely close together

Officials have denied any breach of safety after two planes were pictured apparently flying perilously close together over east London.

The aircraft - a DHL plane and a Japan Airlines jet - were reportedly seen flying over West Ham FC's Upton Park ground just after 1500 GMT on Saturday.

The Civil Aviation Authority said no near miss had been reported and it was impossible to tell how close they were.

DHL said both planes had landed at Heathrow with no safety lapses.

Planes 'seen in close encounter'

The planes appear to be flying extremely close together

Officials have denied any breach of safety after two planes were pictured apparently flying perilously close together over east London.

The aircraft - a DHL plane and a Japan Airlines jet - were reportedly seen flying over West Ham FC's Upton Park ground just after 1500 GMT on Saturday.

The Civil Aviation Authority said no near miss had been reported and it was impossible to tell how close they were.

DHL said both planes had landed at Heathrow with no safety lapses.

(BBC)

Abandon · January 30, 2006

I am sure there was a Thai on board one of them

Tywais · January 30, 2006

Sure looks a h3ll of a lot closer then the separation rules allow:

"Vertically, no IFR aircraft may come within 1,000 feet of another IFR aircraft, thus if you're cruising westbound at 6,000 feet, your protected airspace extends from 5,000 feet to 7,000 feet. The minimum horizontal separation, on the other hand, depends solely upon your distance from the radar antenna. IFR aircraft within 40 nautical miles of the antenna site must be given a minimum horizontal separation of three nautical miles. Those flying beyond 40 miles from the antenna must be separated by five miles. In reality, this means that you'll be guaranteed five miles of separation when working with an enroute facility (center) and five miles when working with a terminal facility (approach, departure, or tower)."

However this statement is a little unnerving:

"In addition to the normal three-mile separation rule, terminal controllers are permitted to use something called "conflict resolution" in Class B and C airspace. Conflict resolution applies to separating an IFR aircraft from a VFR aircraft, and means simply that the controller can see space between the two targets on his screen — "green between" in controller-speak. If the targets don't touch, then the aircraft are considered separated. If they do touch, then the aircraft must be separated vertically by at least 500 feet. It's easy to see how much more efficient this is in a high-density terminal area and it's safe if the weather is VFR. Keep in mind, though, that IFRs must still be separated from other IFRs by the standard three-and-1000."

Source: AvWeb

Edited January 30, 2006 by tywais