I’d noticed the parallel runways before but didn’t realize they sometimes did parallel landings. The runways are about 750 feet apart and the long camera lens compresses the distance.
Aircraft parallel landing at San Francisco’s airport
I’d noticed the parallel runways before but didn’t realize they sometimes did parallel landings. The runways are about 750 feet apart and the long camera lens compresses the distance.
A lot of airports I go through have planes landing in parallel, I kind of enjoy it.
Since I can’t put links in here just DuckDuckGo “youtube captain joe parallel landings” and there is a great video by Captain Joe who explains PRM and SOIA approaches like the do at SFO.
Aw. That thumbnail reminded me of the Space Shuttle prototype Enterprise, riding on its 747.
I used to fly into SFO monthly. This happened to me a few times and the pilot always explained it so passengers didn’t freak out.
Thanks for that. I found him easily and it was a fascinating video.
I really don’t believe this. The outflow of the engines should throwing each other off. I just watched a documentary of flight delta 191 and they were required to be thousands of feet away from another aircraft
Wasn’t that crash caused a microburst?
Watching a documentary does not make you an air traffic controller. Separation standards can vary widely, based on many things including aircraft type, weather, airspace (to name a few). SFO has been doing side-bys for years.
Your incredulity is misplaced.
Correct
Capn Joe seems good, tho the pilot perspective does not always mirror the the controller perspective. Not that either is necessarily wrong, we just have different priorities sometimes.
Sounds like we need an Air Traffic Controller Marc YouTube channel. 😉
Captain Joe explains separation and wake turbulence avoidance.
DuckDuckGo ‘youtube captain joe wake turbulence’.
That 750-foot separation is why SFO’s operations get seriously delayed any time there’s wind, rain, or fog. (And the Bay Area gets wind and fog in the summer, and rain in the winter.) It’s the #1 delayed airport in the US, followed closely by Newark, which has a similar issue.
If you ever get a chance, when flying into O’Hare be sure to look out the window. O’Hare’s modernization program means that there can be 3 planes arriving simultaneously. I’ve seen two parallel to me, but the key difference with SFO is, they’re thousands of feet apart. You first think they’re going to land at a different airport, and then realize, holy crap, ORD has become that big.
On the positive side, O’Hare gets far fewer delays than it used to since they separated out the runways. On the negative side, it can take 30 minutes to taxi after landing!
Heh, get some young person to do that! We retired types are just too cranky