Air Miss

[expat]

Can anyone please tell me what the legal definition of an air miss is. My father flew back from Italy a couple of days ago, and saw the whites of a military pilots eyes. The flight crew tried to asure all was ok, but my father has his doubts.

Thanks

Matt

[Hagar]

Here you are. It's now called an Airprox. http://www.caa.co.uk/default.aspx?categoryid=423&pagetype=90&pageid=1559

That sounds like a deliberate interception in which case it might not be reported.

[Craig.]

jet jockeys playing silly twits again?

[expat]

Ok, now got the full story. Dad sent me a text and he is really into text short hand, I on the other hand am not and did not quite decipher it all correctly. So after a proper conversation, this is what happened.

He was flying from Argentine to Italy. "Somewhere" near Malaga, at about 35,000 feet, he was looking out of the window, when a twin engined airliner crossed over him at about 90 degrees. It was closed enough for him to instinctively duck and say something under his breath. When on the ground, he asked the crew about it. They where more interested in not discussing it and him leaving the aircraft.
My father is ex RAF, knows a thing or two about aircraft still. When I asked about how big it appeared, he said it made him duck. He estimated at about 200 meters. 500 meters he would have just though that is a little close, this concerned him.

So that's it.

I tried to explain TCAS to him, but he was adamant that it was far to close

Matt

[RitterKreuz]

i dont know how europe is but we have RVSM here in the U.S. so when your up in the flight levels things can get pretty close, but still safe.

[Nexus]

Europe is pretty much all RVSM (hey we were years ahead of you yanks!  >:(  ;D ) and it's "only" 1000ft (ca 300m) separating each flightlevel.
I wrote "only" because seeing an airliner just 300m above you is an experience for the passenger  :)

[Drake_TigerClaw]

Perhaps the other aircraft was on the same flightlevel for some reason. Although I would think ATC would give more separation than that. Or maybe someone wasn't set to 2992.

[Woodlouse2002]

Or maybe someone wasn't set to 2992.

Or maybe someone was and the atmospheric pressure wasn't.

[C]

Although I would think ATC would give more separation than that. Or maybe someone wasn't set to 2992.

Hopefully the weren't over europe...

[Drake_TigerClaw]

Or maybe someone was and the atmospheric pressure wasn't.

Up at high flight levels they use pressure altitude
(2992) so everyone is on the same page, if someone is not set to 2992 it throws things off.

[beefhole]

Up at high flight levels they use pressure altitude
(2992) so everyone is on the same page, if someone is not set to 2992 it throws things off.

It was a joke Drake