Separation
I thought I'd drop this in here, rather than be flayed alive by the professionals elsewhere.
This morning, I was caught in a conversation in the street with a very non-geek woman and during this, observed two aircraft on the Heathrow S-bend flying rather closely together. I think it was a BA A380 (possibly flight BA282) ahead and about three 380 lengths behind and 500 feet above, an A320 or a 737 or something. The rear aircraft was heading maybe 5 degrees to stbd of the A380, crossing its wake. I was in N5 looking east, the aircraft were maybe over Stoke Newington (N16) at that point, time about 09:50 BST.
I said "kinell, that's a bit close" and she looked up and said " they're not supposed to fly together like ducks, are they?".
At what point does this kind of adjacency qualify as a "near-miss"? Doesn't an aircraft the size of an A380 leave rather a lot of turbulence in its wake? I really didn't fancy the look of what we saw there, but I had an idea that Heathrow were trying to squish a few more in and had reduced separation or something.
Any enlightenment gratefully received.
Last edited by 3rd_ear; 31st Aug 2016 at 10:17.
Reason: typo