One above the other... or not?
Was lucky enough to capture this moment a few weeks ago. Beautiful sunny day with bluest skies possible, lower aircraft was coming just above me, I immediately noticed the other one too (leaving a huge contrail) and had few precious seconds to take this photo with my Samsung Galaxy Note 3.
They look exactly one above the other, right? If I had to guess, I would say their lateral distance was 300-400 meters, maybe even less. Well, I checked it on Flightradar24 today: the lower aircraft was Swissair A340, at 1400 feet, inbound to local airport (just before turning right base). The other one was Air Algerie A330, cruising at 39 000 feet from Beijing to Algiers. Lateral distance? 3.6 kilometers! The scale of the map is visible near the bottom right corner, but I measured it precisely in Google Earth.
Nice capture @vortac!!!
Incredible.
I wonder if by using the time the image was taken, and the knowledge of flight position, if it would be possible to work out the EXACT spot where you were standing with no further information?
Well, it wouldn't be EXACT because I am very small compared to an Airbus 340, but yes, using the precise time and precise flight positions, you could create a three-dimensional model and connect those two aircrafts with a line and where the line intersects with the ground - that's where I am standing.
Something like this:
very interesting you must be relatively close to the lower altitude Swissair A340 one... in "pula"
"1400 feet, inbound to local airport (just before turning right base). " cant make such a distance...
but are you sure these are the right planes? do cone train are real normal commercial planes and they are also in those site radars? or not?
is there really such a different distance perspective from reality?
I would say 1400 feet is normal altitude for an aircraft in right base, for landing in Pula.
And I am 100% sure those are the right planes. Any other plane at that altitude would have been certainly detected by Flightradar and would also leave a huge contrail.
I still think contrails aren't normal... 5 years ago I practically did't see any... lasting 4 hours like now!
it's interesting! thanks