How close is too close for a commercial plane to fly next to another?

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I had to take five minutes to compose myself afterwards.

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When you say 'compose'... do you mean rinse out your pants?

How could you see the passenger windows if it was coming towards you?

I saw a cool video the other day on x of a plane with 2,000 ft vertical separation between filmer’s plane and plane in video. Even that just visually seemed pretty close (seem being the key word, obviously it’s safe since it clears the standard)

I once saw a southwest plane fly past us and underneath, going the opposite direction. It startled me as well as some of the other passengers. When I landed I googled the distance required and realized that they were well beyond the minimum limit. Still seemed unnecessary to be that close but I’m no expert.

7

I have been on hundreds of flights and not once have I ever looked out the window and saw another plane (nearby)

Edit to add "nearby".

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I have been on hundreds of flights and not once have I ever looked out the window and saw another plane.

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I was on a flight once that was seemingly very normal. Not much turbulence, smooth takeoff, etc. But when we landed the pilot slammed on the brakes. I mean the second we touched down, he hit the brakes and all of us were leaned forward about to head butt the seat in front of us. Then it slowed to a very slow roll, as all of us were looking around at each other in confusion. Then the plane took a left to start heading toward the terminal and holy shite, there was plane just sitting there on the runway. The same runway we just landed on. I swear that plane was less than 100 yards from us.

I’m going give my interpretation of how far apart they should be as a medical sales person and not a pilot. Here goes.



They are usually 1000 above below each other.


But in watching flight aware, they usalloy fly AT each other as long as one is 34k feet and the other coming at/past it is 33k feet.

It seems like a gamble but they trust their equipment.

I suppose they fly by right at each other is a way keep tabs on where they are. Maybe they do it to get a visual.

But when I watch them on FlightAware, I always think “dude pull to left and let him pull to his left” but tuebnever fly into each other.