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A comment on I sent a balloon to space and photographed Venus for under $200. Ask me anything. Parent comment

Re:I sent a balloon to space and photographed Venus for unde... by sukuriant on Wednesday July 20, 2011 @02:01PM (#2786731)
No. Define "just missed". Flying across country (Florida to Washington), I saw another plane flying in the other direction. The plane looked and felt like it was right next to us, like .. hundreds of yards apart. Cross-country planes do this all the time, so far as I can gather.

[edit: fixed typo, added ending to sentence]

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Re:I sent a balloon to space and photographed Venus for unde... by kirubakaran on Wednesday July 20, 2011 @07:43PM (#2787896)
What you experienced is a "near miss" and it probably happened only because someone somewhere fucked up.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near_miss_(safety)

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Re:I sent a balloon to space and photographed Venus for unde... by mikeash on Wednesday July 20, 2011 @10:43PM (#2788328)
In my opinion, it's far more likely that he greatly underestimated the distances between the two planes. People who aren't used to these things tend to see a few miles of separation as a few hundred feet instead. Airliners are big.
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Re:I sent a balloon to space and photographed Venus for unde... by sukuriant on Friday July 22, 2011 @02:50PM (#2794689)
This is an incredible possibility.
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Re:I sent a balloon to space and photographed Venus for unde... by prawn on Wednesday July 20, 2011 @07:33PM (#2787867)
Probably fair to say that planes are under pilot control whereas the balloon was at the mercy of the winds, right?
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Re:I sent a balloon to space and photographed Venus for unde... by adestefan on Wednesday July 20, 2011 @02:29PM (#2786845)
I thought the same thing. Wondered if it was within the 3 mi/1000 mi box.
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