Planes nearly collide midair

that is crazy, that kind of stuff is NOT suppose to happen. i would tend to believe the whistleblower in the story.

I think this story happened with [http://flightaware.com/live/flight/AAL951/history/20110118/0230Z/KJFK/SBGR AAL951] on Jan 17.

a mile apart is far from what is considered "nearly collide"

The altitude was 200 feet apart if you viewed the entire video.

200 feet apart vertically, 1 mile horizontally if you viewed the entire video

It could been another mid air collusion between DHL B757 and Tupolev 154. Glad the AA pilot listened to the TCAS unlike crew of TU-154

It's still a critical safety issue. "That was not good", said the pilot.

Safety issue: Absolutely.

Near collision? Absolutely not

If I understand correctly, the merging distance is calculated at the point of closest merge, considering altitude and distance. Once the pilots took action to open the distance, the merge calculation gets larger, Thus had the pilots continued with the original altitude assignment, unabated, they may have actually hit.

Sure. and if you didn't break at the stop light you may have actually hit the car in front of you.

Nearly hitting the car in front of you would be coming inches close to it or having to swerve like a madman after realizing what was happening.

They were a mile apart even if at the same altitude. so no, they may not have actually hit. 1 mile apart. the 200 feet is just the figure they're trying to blow up.

When normally cool-and-collected pilots make comments like those quoted, you know it's way too close, and nothing ordinary at all. At closing speeds of several hundred miles per hour, a lateral distance of 1 mile can be covered in 5 - 10 seconds. So attempts by some on this board to downplay the incident are misguided. All I can say is ... thank God for TCAS. Without technology, we'd be reading about the loss of hundreds of people, and 2 or 3 expensive aircraft.