JetBlue flight averts mid-air collision with US Air Force jet

Re:JetBlue flight averts mid-air collision with US Air Force... by kijin on Tuesday December 16, 2025 @12:34AM (#46285145)

The Air Force is probably used to flying much closer to one another, but civilians are not. Even in a busy airspace, jet airliners are usually kept apart >1000ft vertically, and much more horizontally in the direction they're moving. These birds can fly 500ft in less than 1 second after all.

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Re:JetBlue flight averts mid-air collision with US Air Force... by dragonwriter on Tuesday December 16, 2025 @11:08AM (#46290292)

> The Air Force is probably used to flying much closer to one another, but civilians are not.

The FAA isn’t primarily concerned with the Air Force. They investigate and address loss of separation incidents that fall short of rheir definition of near misses, they just don’t describe them as near misses.

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Re:JetBlue flight averts mid-air collision with US Air Force... by kijin on Tuesday December 16, 2025 @12:00PM (#46291000)

I wasn't talking about the FAA definition specifically, only that military pilots probably have a narrower definition of a near miss than civilians do.

They also seem to be overconfident in their ability to identify, track and evade other aircraft. Example: the Helicopter pilot who crashed into a civilian jet over the Potomac earlier this year.

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