Near miss from space junk.

Rear view mirror?

Dan Luke wrote:

"Gig 601XL Builder" wrote:



The pilot of a Lan Chile Airbus A340, which was travelling between
Santiago, Chile, and Auckland, New Zealand, notified air traffic
controllers at Auckland Oceanic Centre after seeing flaming space junk
hurtling across the sky just five nautical miles in front of and behind his
plane about 10pm last night.



How did he see stuff behind him?




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"Dan Luke" wrote in message
...
How did he see stuff behind him?

--
Dan
C-172RG at BFM

Would it have come up on TCAS?
Crash Lander

Not to be picky, but... How was the distance measured?

With a ruler?

I don't know how (or whether) the distance was measured, or whether it
was calculated after the fact.

Jose
--
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On Mar 28, 2:05 pm, "Maxwell" wrote:

Those things are so fully equipped these days, he might have seen it on his
radar, or perhaps a collision avoidance system, hard to say. They may even
be able to replay the collision avoidance and radar data now days. I would
think some collision avoidance could be targeted aft. It would be
interesting to know.

Got any airline pilots out there anywhere? In the things I fly you are lucky
to have gps, unless you bring your own.

I'm not an airline pilot, but I know that TCAS (collision avoidance)
only works with transponder equipped traffic. It's unlikely that the
burning space junk was so equipped. Something like space junk
wouldn't likely show up on the weather radar either.

John Galban=====N4BQ (PA28-180)

But, five miles = "narrowly missed"????????

For outer space? Yes.

Not to be picky, but... How was the distance measured?

Google found this report

By Emma O'Brien

March 29 (Bloomberg) -- A Lan Airlines SA aircraft flying over the
Pacific Ocean on its way to New Zealand came within 40 seconds of
being hit by a debris from a falling Russian satellite, the Dominion
Post said, citing aviation authorities.

The pilot of the Chilean plane, which was traveling to Auckland from
Santiago on March 27, alerted Auckland air traffic controllers after
he saw a flaming pieces of space junk fall 10 kilometers (6.2 miles)
in front of and behind the aircraft, the newspaper said.

The material came from a Russian satellite that was being dumped back
to earth 12 hours ahead of schedule, according to the Post. Airways
New Zealand, which provides air navigation services, was warned a
satellite would fall to earth some time on March 28, the newspaper
said.

New Zealand's Civil Aviation Authority will investigate the incident,
the newspaper said, citing communications manager Bill Sommer. Lan
Airlines declined to comment on the incident when contacted yesterday,
according to the Post.

Gig 601XL Builder wrDOTgiaconaATsuddenlink.net wrote:
Pieces of space junk from a Russian satellite coming out of orbit
narrowly missed hitting a jetliner over the Pacific Ocean overnight.

""On Christmas eve," said NORAD, "a Soviet Sputnik hit Africa."
India, Venezuela.
Texas, Kansas.
It's falling fast.
Peru, too.
It keeps coming.
It keeps coming.
It keeps coming...
And now I'm mad about space junk."

Matt Roberds

Not to be picky, but... How was the distance measured?

With a ruler?


:-)))

"Gig 601XL Builder" wrDOTgiaconaATsuddenlink.net wrote in message
...
http://www.thewest.com.au/default.as...ontentID=24657


Pieces of space junk from a Russian satellite coming out of orbit narrowly
missed hitting a jetliner over the Pacific Ocean overnight.


http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/...ectid=10431449

"However, Nasa said today it was convinced the flaming objects were not from
a satellite and space experts said it could have been a meteor."

On 2007-03-28, Crash Lander wrote:
Would it have come up on TCAS?
Crash Lander

Only if they fitted a transponder to the space junk!

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