Space Junk Barely Misses LAN Chile A340

[Iwasthere]

The West Australian newspaper reports the pilot of the Airbus A340 flying from Santiago, Chile, got on the horn with controllers at Auckland Oceanic Center following the close encounter. The falling star -- what was left from a deorbited Russian satellite -- streaked across the sky approximately five nautical miles from the airliner.

http://www.aero-news.net/index.cfm?do=main.textpost&id=3fb072d6-da24-4bbe-a60d-ce8b28a0876d

[jberryhill]

1. By that definition of "barely misses"

Then the plane much more narrowly avoided collision with the ground during most of its flight.

[hatrack]

2. Yes, but given the relative distances (and amazing odds involved) . . .

I'd go ahead and give it "near-miss' credit.

BTW, doesn't "near-hit" make more sense logically? I never quite figured that one out . . . .

[jberryhill]

3. Depends on how you read "near"

If "near" is an adjective describing the type of miss.

[NutmegYankee]

5. ...

[Javaman]

6. Average cruising speed of an intercontinental airliner is roughly 550 mph...

that translates to just over 9 miles a minute.

So something that is 5 miles away is less than a minute away.

I would be concerned.

[HereSince1628]

7. At cruising speed the plane would cover what...about seven miles a minute?

Which would make the "barely misses" a 50 second gap on an hour's long air flight seem a pretty close thing.

Living in a snowy climate over the years I've seen a handful of accidents occur about half minute in front of me on the interstate and have thought "I was just seconds away from being involved in that."

[malaise]

8. ROFL

Seriously these people love excitement

[GReedDiamond]

4. It had to be posted...DEVO

SPACE JUNK