When we’re up in the skies on a plane to take us far, far away we feel untouchable. Like we’re miles and miles from everyone else.
It’s such a good feeling. Well, unless you have a fear of flying, I guess.
But whether you enjoy it or not, it does feel like you’re cruising an empty sky with no one around.
Yet that’s not exactly true. Prepare for that illusion to be shattered.
Advert
A pilot has taken to TikTok to show how we’re not alone at all up in there in skies.
And no, I’m not talking about UFOs and aliens.
Filmed from a plane’s cockpit, the video shows an amazing panoramic view of the empty blue sky, with a bed of clouds below.
“When you travel by plane and think the sky is so big that you’re alone up there,” the in-video caption reads.
However, the clip then shows nearby planes also flying through the sky as it says: “But you’re actually almost always flying so so close to other planes.”
Other aircrafts then fly past and above the pilot and look almost alarmingly close by.
The video explains: “As we’re most of the times following standard airways, kind of motorways in the sky.
“And we’re only distant 1,000 feet (or 300 meters) from each other.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?”
Only not all users in the comments find it so ‘beautiful’.
One wrote: “Oh great a new reason added to my fear of flying.”
Although the creator replied: “No need to be scared. We have systems telling us where the other planes are and what they’re doing. So we always have a clear picture.”
And one wrote: “Beautiful.. isn’t it? – no that looks terrifying.”
But other users joked: “Do pilots stick their finger up at each other?”
And another put: “And they give the ‘bus driver nod’ as they pass each other.”
A lot of users are more interested in imagining this as they ask: "Do you wave to each other like bus drivers do?"
Although they probably (hopefully) aren't close enough to see this.
One also put: “Pfff.. look at this jerk, didn’t even use his blinkers.”
Not everyone is so 'terrified either, as they write: "I absolutely LOOOOOVE when I see other planes when on an airplane. It‘s so much amazing! I wish I knew where they‘re flying to and from."
To be honest, I think I'll just stick to keeping my eyes closed fast asleep or glued to the film I'm watching until we come in to land next time.
Jess Battison