Would a passing aircraft like this ever trigger TCAS, or is this normal separation altitude?

Posted by xShadowPro@reddit | aviation | View on Reddit | 12 comments

Hey, so I noticed this other plane zooming past for the first time (very cool), but realised we flew through its trail straight after. It seemed pretty close when it passed underneath.

I appreciate we were probably still like 1000ft apart, but it just felt closer than I expected. Big open sky, I was wondering if that’s normal, was there any risk here or does it just looks closer than it actually was?

Also would something like that ever set off TCAS or not really?

To clarify, I'm not trying to dramatise anything here, genuinely curious.

Thank you

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spacecadet2399@reddit

100% normal. Would not even register on TCAS.

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Ok-Proposal-9160@reddit

😰😨😦😦😮😯😲🤯🤯🤯

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Ok-Proposal-9160@reddit

Amazing

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xShadowPro@reddit (OP)

I thought so too, you underappreciated how fast these things travel. This really put it into perspective.

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Far-Yellow9303@reddit

You might get a TCAS Proximate Traffic but all that is is a white diamond on the TCAS display showing relative location. It won't trigger an alarm as that requires not only that the aircraft is close, but is predicted to get closer. Because this plane is below and flying level, it won't get closer and so will be ignored.

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cryptolyme@reddit

it just looks close because the sky is big

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KJ3040@reddit

Airplanes often fly on routes, and those routes have intersections. This is totally normal separation.

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Marcolampie@reddit

Normal pass

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GGCRX@reddit

Distances between planes can be really deceptive at altitude. You don't have any fixed reference points to judge size or position and there are optical illusions that can mess with you - for example at :07, the contrails trick your brain into thinking the other plane is higher than it really is - it looks like it's just about level with your aircraft even though we can see from the previous seconds that it's definitely not.

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