Discussion
I was sitting in my garden enjoying a post work G&T when I noticed two planes apparently heading for each other above me. Not little planes but bloody great Boeings. I live under a flight path and am used to them going over, but these were close enough to make me head for cover (fat lot of good it would have done).
I thought the thing to do would be to report this kind of incident so rang the CAA, then the Air traffic control people then the Department of transport (bastards) and finally the Air accident branch. Apart from the last all were rude and said there was nothing they could do, the last said did I get the registration number of either plane???? because without it it would be hard to trace them - now these were planes in a holding pattern above the worlds busiest airport and over a built up area at a given time and they cannot trace them.
Moral of the story is if you want to drive like a tit at hundreds of miles an hour and endanger the lives of a couple of hundred people without attracting the attention of the authorities get yourself a Boeing rather than a car. They don't give a shit if you are in a Plane!!!!!
>>> Edited by dans on Wednesday 19th June 21:43
I thought the thing to do would be to report this kind of incident so rang the CAA, then the Air traffic control people then the Department of transport (bastards) and finally the Air accident branch. Apart from the last all were rude and said there was nothing they could do, the last said did I get the registration number of either plane???? because without it it would be hard to trace them - now these were planes in a holding pattern above the worlds busiest airport and over a built up area at a given time and they cannot trace them.
Moral of the story is if you want to drive like a tit at hundreds of miles an hour and endanger the lives of a couple of hundred people without attracting the attention of the authorities get yourself a Boeing rather than a car. They don't give a shit if you are in a Plane!!!!!
>>> Edited by dans on Wednesday 19th June 21:43
The reg numbers are not difficult to get ..... look for a white plate with black lettering on the front, and a yellow plate with black lettering on the back.
You could have got a couple of photo's a second apart & sent them of to the authorities. They could have then sent the pilots a FPN and a fine!
>> Edited by ultimapaul on Wednesday 19th June 21:53
You could have got a couple of photo's a second apart & sent them of to the authorities. They could have then sent the pilots a FPN and a fine!
>> Edited by ultimapaul on Wednesday 19th June 21:53
You won't have to report it. If you are near an airport a report will be filed by the controllers (called an airprox report) and it will be investigated by the authorities. these things are not tken lightly.
I am disappointed but not surprised by the reaction from the various agencies. With the exception of the AAIB, they are all well known for their disregard of the public! The AAIB is recognised for its thoroughness and professionalism.
Check out the AAIB website. In due course an incident report will appear on the matter (if it really was an airprox), but you will struggle to trace it without the aircraft reg numbers.
Where do you live?
www.aaib.dft.gov.uk/index/
>> Edited by yum on Wednesday 19th June 22:10
I am disappointed but not surprised by the reaction from the various agencies. With the exception of the AAIB, they are all well known for their disregard of the public! The AAIB is recognised for its thoroughness and professionalism.
Check out the AAIB website. In due course an incident report will appear on the matter (if it really was an airprox), but you will struggle to trace it without the aircraft reg numbers.
Where do you live?
www.aaib.dft.gov.uk/index/
>> Edited by yum on Wednesday 19th June 22:10
Confirm that, from earth level you can't see the vertical separation between the planes. The rules of separation from plane to plane are quite rigid and they can control the suspected movements from radar traces that are memorized. I am living near airport and when departing, the planes are passing at 3000 ft. height. I am afraid of falling airplane parts (engines, wheels, body panels, s***t from toilets) instead of mid air collisions.
I understand that, however being as they were similar craft and flying low in an approach pattern, the required vertical difference would have made an appreciable difference in their size relative to one another. I guess my point was more about the attitude of the relevant authorities...
A doubt about the height of the authorities is out of doubt 
, everywhere, remember SAS accident at Milano airport, nobody was arrested for now, scandalous.
The worst thing is, even if the plane is safest for transport, that often is conducted/controlled/mantained by brain-damaged persons.
>> Edited by go-go on Thursday 20th June 11:07
, everywhere, remember SAS accident at Milano airport, nobody was arrested for now, scandalous. The worst thing is, even if the plane is safest for transport, that often is conducted/controlled/mantained by brain-damaged persons.
>> Edited by go-go on Thursday 20th June 11:07
quote:
I guess my point was more about the attitude of the relevant authorities...
Remember they probably get phoned ten times a day by numpties saying "I saw a flying saucer!" "Can you tell me the way to the airport?" or whatever - if there is a genuine near-miss, I doubt if their main source of evidence is someone phoning in and telling them...
quote:
quote:
... s***t from toilets ...
Only in a Billy Connolly joke
Not so. I clearly remember a TV news story with film of a large lump of frozen sewage thawing slowly in some poor sod's kitchen after it came through the roof.
I'm trying desparately to remember how it happened but as near as I can recall the aircraft had a slow leak from the valve used to pump out the toilet waste holding tank. The seepage froze as it leaked out at high altitude building up a sizeable lump frozen to the side of the fuselage. When the aicraft descended it started to thaw and fell away in the slipstream, crashing through the ceiling of aforementioned victim's kitchen.
quote:
Could this have been what you saw...
www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_612591.html
Don't know, but I had an answerphone full of messages from the CAA last night when I got in.....
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