When is a near miss not a near miss when planes are too close?

Question

When planes are too close in controlled airspace why is it called a "near miss", why not say "almost hit", is it because they are still so far apart that it makes no diffirence, or is it simply spin from the airlines/airports to make it sound safe?

Answer 1

A near miss occours when 2 planes are less than the minimum separation distance apart in any direction, it happens a lot, more than you'd think. If 2 planes are on a collision course a system called TCAS kicks in and overrides traffic controllers and advises both pilots to either climb or descend.

If you're interested you can actually now buy a system called SBS 1, its a secondary surveillance radar, what that does is read information from a planes transponder and displays it real time on a radar like screen on a pc, that tells you a planes ident, heading, speed, height etc. Costs less than you'd think as well, the whole system with an external antenna and pre-amp can be had for about £800, its one of those things that will either bore you to tears or you'll spend most of your spare time messing with.

I have mine running all the time :)

Answer 2

A near miss is a lot less dangerous sounding than a near hit and in reality a near miss in most controlled airspace is about 3 miles and less than 1000 feet height separation. Saying that you nearly hit something opposed to nearly missed something is grammatically correct but you don't really want to use the word "HIT" when you are 20,000 feet off the ground!

Answer 3

A near miss is an unplanned event that did not result in injury, illness, or damage - but had the potential to do so. Only a fortunate break in the chain of events prevented an injury, fatality or damage. Although human error is commonly an initiating event, a faulty process or system invariably permits or compounds the harm, and is the focus of improvement. Other familiar terms for these events is a "close call", or in the case of moving objects, "near collision".

Answer 4

All near misses really are is another way to say, OOPS!! Near misses happen all the time. We just never hear about it because we have the greatest pilots in the world (most of them). They can take care of 'near misses' by just performing an evasive maneuver. I'm pretty sure, once they land, the pilots have a few select words for the control tower.

Answer 5

Commercial aircraft fly in "corridors" established by international
authorities. These corridors are for aircraft flying in opposite
directions and closely monitored by ground controllers. For
diverging directions of commercial aircraft (example: one is
going North and the other South but on the same route) the
distance separating the two will be 1.000ft. If, by chance, one
of the two get out of their corridor, they will be advised immediately
by the ground controllers.

Answer 6

A "near miss" is a nice way of calling it a "near collision" or "near crash".
Anything less drastic would be termed a technical violation of "aircraft separation standards."

A n example of a near miss would be an aborted take-off or landing because of another unauthorized airplane on or near the runway.

Answer 7

my first guess would be when they crash! :D

seriously, good question.

i've never really thought about it.

i originally though "near miss" would make it sound safer.

i'd read some of the answers above - on reading thhem the people sound like they know what they're talking about.

merry christmas! x

Answer 8

well i used to live on a caravan site situated nicely at the end of a runway(the bae) with fighters jets only inches away from the caravan.now near miss is just a nice freindly term of "oh my god incooooommmmmmmiiinnnnggg)

Answer 9

Is nod neer mis wen plane collide wing com of ant plane crash, is obvous wye ask stupit qeston?

Answer 10

Would it sound better if we call it a "Far Hit"???